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BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 


r-ccl.     1-/3-73 


Booker  T.  Washington 

Builder  of  a  Civilization 


By 

Emmett  J.  Scott 

and 

Lyman  Beecher  Stowe 


Illustrated  from  Photographs 


Garden  City  New  York 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

1916 


Copyright,  1916,  by 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


COPYRIGHT,  I9l6,  BY  THE  OUTLOOK  PUBLISHING  CO. 


UBRMW  UNW.  OF 
UOR-m  CAROLINA 


FOREWORD 

IN  THE  passing  of  a  character  so  unique  as  Dr.  Booker  T. 
Washington,  many  of  us,  his  friends,  were  anxious  that  his 
biography  should  be  written  by  those  best  qualified  to  do 
so.  It  is  therefore  a  source  of  gratification  to  us  of  his  own 
race  to  have  an  account  of  Dr.  Washington's  career  set 
forth  in  a  form  at  once  accurate  and  readable,  such  as  will 
inspire  unborn  generations  of  Negroes  and  others  to  love 
and  appreciate  all  mankind  of  whatever  race  or  color.  It 
is  especially  gratifying  that  this  biography  has  been  pre- 
pared by  the  two  people  in  all  America  best  fitted,  by 
antecedents  and  by  intimate  acquaintance  and  association 
with  Dr.  Washington,  to  undertake  it.  Mr.  Lyman 
Beecher  Stowe  is  the  grandson  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
whose  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  had  a  very  direct  influence  on 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  Mr.  Emmett  J.  Scott  was  Dr. 
Washington's  loyal  and  trusted  secretary  for  eighteen 
years. 

Robert  R.  Moton. 

Principal  Tuskegee  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute. 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 
August  J,  IQl6. 


AUTHORS'   PREFACE 

THIS  is  not  a  biography  in  the  ordinary  sense.  The 
exhaustive  "Life  and  Letters  of  Booker  T.  Washington"  re- 
mains still  to  be  compiled.  In  this  more  modest  work  we 
have  simply  sought  to  present  and  interpret  the  chief 
phases  of  the  life  of  this  man  who  rose  from  a  slave  boy  to 
be  the  leader  of  ten  millions  of  people  and  to  take  his  place 
for  all  time  among  America's  great  men.  In  fact,  we  have 
not  even  touched  upon  his  childhood,  early  training,  and 
education,  because  we  felt  the  story  of  those  early  strug- 
gles and  privations  had  been  ultimately  well  told  in  his 
own  words  in  "Up  from  Slavery."  This  autobiography, 
however,  published  as  it  was  fifteen  years  before  his  death, 
brings  the  story  of  his  life  only  to  the  threshold  of  his 
greatest  achievements.  In  this  book  we  seek  to  give  the 
full  fruition  of  his  life's  work.  Each  chapter  is  complete  in 
itself.  Each  presents  a  complete,  although  by  no  means 
exhaustive,  picture  of  some  phase  of  his  life. 

We  take  no  small  satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  we  were 
personally  selected  by  Booker  Washington  himself  for  this 
task.  He  considered  us  qualified  to  produce  what  he 
wanted:  namely,  a  record  of  his  struggles  and  achieve- 
ments at  once  accurate  and  readable,  put  in  permanent 
form  for  the  information  of  the  public.     He  believed  that 

vii 


AUTHORS'  PREFACE 

such  a  record  could  best  be  furnished  by  his  confidential 
associate,  working  in  collaboration  with  a  trained  and  ex- 
perienced writer,  sympathetically  interested  in  the  welfare 
of  the  Negro  race.  This,  then,  is  what  we  have  tried  to  do 
and  the  way  we  have  tried  to  do  it. 

We  completed  the  first  four  chapters  before  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's death,  but  he  never  read  them.  In  fact,  it  was 
our  wish,  to  which  he  agreed,  that  he  should  not  read  what 
we  had  written  until  its  publication  in  book  form. 

Emmett  J.  Scott, 
Lyman  Beecher  Stowe. 


via 


PREFACE 

IT  IS  not  hyperbole  to  say  that  Booker  T.  Washington 
was  a  great  American.  For  twenty  years  before  his 
death  he  had  been  the  most  useful,  as  well  as  the  most 
distinguished,  member  of  his  race  in  the  world,  and  one 
of  the  most  useful,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished, 
of  American  citizens  of  any  race. 

Eminent  though  his  services  were  to  the  people  of  his 

own  color,  the  white  men  of  our  Republic  were  almost  as 

much    indebted    to    him,    both    directly    and    indirectly. 

They  were  indebted  to  him  directly,  because  of  the  work 

t  he  did  on  behalf  of  industrial  education  for  the  Negro, 

#  thus  giving  impetus  to  the  work  for  the  industrial  educa- 
tion of  the  White  Man,  which  is,  at  least,  as  necessary; 

•  and,  moreover,  every  successful  effort  to  turn  the  thoughts 
»  of  the  natural  leaders  of  the  Negro  race  into  the  fields  of 

•  business  endeavor,  of  agricultural  effort,  of  every  species 

•  of  success  in  private  life,  is  not  only  to  their  advantage, 

•  but  to  the  advantage  of  the  White  Man,  as  tending  to 

•  remove  the   friction   and   trouble   that   inevitably  come 

•  throughout  the  South  at  this  time  in  any  Negro  district 

•  where  the  Negroes  turn  for  their  advancement  primarily 
f  to  political  life. 

The  indirect  indebtedness  of  the  White  Race  to  Booker 

ix 


^ 


PREFACE 

T.  Washington  is  due  to  the  simple  fact  that  here  in  Amer- 
ica we  are  all  in  the  end  going  up  or  down  together;  and 
therefore,  in  the  long  run,  the  man  who  makes  a  surJsran- 
tial  contribution  toward  uplifting  any  part  of  the  com- 
munity  has  helped  to  uplift  all  of  the  community.  Wher- 
ever in  our  land  the  Negro  remains  uneducated,  and 
liable  to  criminal  suggestion,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that 
the  whites  will  themselves  tend  to  tread  the  paths  of  bar- 
barism; and  wherever  we  find  the  colored  people  as  a 
whole  engaged  in  successful  work  to  better  themselves, 
and  respecting  both  themselves  and  others,  there  we  shall 
also  find  the  tone  of  the  white  community  high. 

The  patriotic  white  man  with  an  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  this  country  is  almost  as  heavily  indebted  to  Booker  T. 
Washington  as  the  colored  men  themselves?"  """ — 

If  there  is  any  lesson,  more  essential  than  any  other, 
for  this  country  to  learn,  it  is  the  lesson  that  the  enjoyment 
of  rights  should  be  made  conditional  upon  the  performance 
of  duty.  For  one  failure  in  the  history  of  our  country 
whicTT  is  due  to  the  people  not  asserting  their  rights,  there 
are  hundreds  due  to  their  not  performing  their  duties. 

!This  is  just  as  true  of  the  White  Man  as  it  is  of  the  Colored 
Man.  But  it  is  a  lesson  even  more  important  to  be  taught 
the  Colored  Man,  because  the  Negro  starts  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ladder  and  will  never  develop  the  strength  to  climb 
even  a  single  rung  if  he  follow  the  lead  of  those  who  dwell 
only  upon  their  rights  and  not  upon  their  duties.  He  has 
a  hard  road  to  travel  anyhow.  He  is  certain  to  be  treated 
with  much  injustice,  and  although  he  will  encounter 
x 


PREFACE 

among  white  men  a  number  who  wish  to  help  him  upward 
and  onward,  he  will  encounter  only  too  many  who,  if  they 
do  him  no  bodily  harm,  yet  show  a  brutal  lack  of  con- 
sideration for  him.  Nevertheless  his  one  safety  lies  in 
steadily  keeping  in  view  that  the  law  of  service  is  the  great 
law  of  life,  above  all  in  this  Republic,  and  that  no  man  of 
color  can  benefit  either  himself  or  the  rest  of  his  race, 
unless  he  proves  by  his  life  his  adherence  to  this  law. 
Such  a  life  is  not  easy  for  the  White  Man,  and  it  is  very 
much  less  easy  for  the  Black  Man;  but  it  is  even  more 
important  for  the  Black  Man,  and  for  the  Black  Man's 
people,  that  he  should  lead  it. 

As  nearly  as  any  man  I  have  ever  met,  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington lived  up  to  Micah's  verse,  "What  more  doth  the 
Lord  require  to  thee  than  to  do  Justice  and  love  Mercy  and  N 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God."  He  did  justice  to  every 
man.  He  did  justice  to  those  to  whom  it  was  a  hard 
thing  to  do  justice.  He  showed  mercy;  and  this  meant 
that  he  showed  mercy  not  only  to  the  poor,  and  to  those 
beneath  him,  but  that  he  showed  mercy  by  an  understand- 
ing of  the  shortcomings  of  those  who  failed  to  do  him 
justice,  and  failed  to  do  his  race  justice.  He  always  under- 
stood and  acted  upon  the  belief  that  the  Black  Man  could 
not  rise  if  he  so  acted  as  to  incur  the  enmity  and  hatred  of 
the  White  Man;  that  it  was  of  prime  importance  to  the 
well-being  of  the  Black  Man  to  earn  the  good  will  of  his 
white  neighbor,  and  that  the  bulk  of  the  Black  Men 
who  dwell  in  the  Southern  States  must  realize  that  the 
White  Men  who  are  their  immediate  physical  neighbors 

xi 


\ 


PREFACE 

are  beyond  all  others  those  whose  good  will  and  respect 
it  is  of  vital  consequence  that  the  Black  Men  of  the  South 
should  secure. 

He  was  never  led  away,  as  the  educated  Negro  so  often 
is  led  away,  into  the  pursuit  of  fantastic  visions;  into  the 
drawing  up  of  plans  fit  only  for  a  world  of  two  dimensions. 
He  kept  his  high  ideals,  always;  but  he  never  forgot  for  a 
moment  that  he  was  living  in  an  actual  world  of  three 
dimensions,  in  a  world  of  unpleasant  facts,  where  those 
unpleasant  facts  have  to  be  faced;  and  he  made  the  best 
possible  out  of  a  bad  situation  from  which  there  was  no 
ideal  best  to  be  obtained.  And  he  walked  humbly  with 
his  God. 

To  a  very  extraordinary  degree  he  combined  humility 
and  dignity;  and  I  think  that  the  explanation  of  this 
extraordinary  degree  of  success  in  a  very  difficult  com- 
bination was  due  to  the  fact  that  at  the  bottom  his  humility 
was  really  the  outward  expression,  not  of  a  servile  attitude 
toward  any  man,  but  of  the  spiritual  fact  that  in  very 
truth  he  walked  humbly  with  his  God. 

Nowhere  was  Booker  T.  Washington^  wisdom  shown 
better  than  in  the  mixture  of  moderation  and  firmness 
with  which  he  took  precisely  the  right  position  as  to,  the 
part  the  Black  Man  should  try  to  take  in  politics.  He 
put  the  whole  case  in  a  nut-shell  in  the  following  sentences: 

"In  my  opinion  it  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  teach  the  young 
black  man  and  the  young  white  man  that  the  dominance 
of  the  white  race  in  the  South  rests  upon  any  other  basis 
than  absolute  justice  to  the  weaker  man.  It  is  a  mistake 
xii 


PREFACE 

to  cultivate  in  the  mind  of  any  individual  or  group  of 
individuals  the  feeling  and  belief  that  their  happiness 
rests  upon  the  misery  of  some  one  else,  or  their  wealth  by 
the  poverty  of  some  one  else.  I  do  not  advocate  that  the 
Negro  make  politics  or  the  holding  of  office  an  important 
thing  in  his  life.  I  do  urge,  in  the  interests  of  fair  play 
for  everybody,  that  a  Negro  who  prepares  himself  in 
property,  in  intelligence,  and  in  character  to  cast  a  ballot, 
and  desires  to  do  so,  should  have  the  opportunity." 

In  other  words,  while  he  did  not  believe  that  political 
activity  should  play  an  important  part  among  Negroes  as 
a  whole,  he  did  believe  that  in  the  interests  of  the  White, 
as  well  as  in  the  interests  of  the  Colored,  race,  the  upright, 
honest,  intelligent  Black  Man  or  Colored  Man  should  be 
given  the  right  to  cast  a  ballot  if  he  possessed  the  qualities 
which,  if  possessed  by  a  White  Man,  would  make  that 
White  Man  a  valuable  addition  to  the  suffrage-exercising 
class.  ^.._ — -" 

..N°  m?n.  Whitfr  oQIacEZ^ii  iaots  fcfnj^jjjy^than 

Booker  T.  Wa^hingi-on  to  the  threat  of  the  South }  and  to 
the  whole  country^  and  especially  to  the  Black  Man  him- 
self, contained  in  the  mass  of  ignorant,  propertyless,  semi- 

,  ,1  '  mi     mi    it? ■■    .l.llXll     lllll.Hlll.ll.,      _jf       ,,,,„,„„,. 

vicious  Black  Ynfprfn  wholly  InH-rinn;  in  thp  character  wmrh 
alone  fits  a  race  for  self-government,  who  nevertheless 
have  been  given  the  ballot  in  certain  SouthernStates". 


In  my  many  conversationJanToonsuTt^  him  it 

is,  I  believe,  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  one-half  the 
time  we  were  discussing  methods  for  keeping  out  of  office, 
and  out  of  all  political  power,  the  ignorant,  semi-criminal, 

xiii 


A 


PREFACE 

shiftless  Black  Man  who,  when  manipulated  by  the  able 
and  unscrupulous  politician,  Black  or  White,  is  so  dreadful 
a  menace  to  our  political  institutions.  But  he  felt  very 
strongly,  and  I  felt  no  less  strongly,  that  one  of  the  most 
efficient  ways  of  warring  against  this  evil  type  was  to  show 
the  Negro  that,  if  he  turned  his  back  on  that  type,  and 
fitted  himself  to  be  a  self-respecting  citizen,  doing  his 
part  in  sustaining  the  common  burdens  of  good  citizenship, 
he  would  be  freely  accorded  by  his  White  neighbors  the 
privileges  and  rights  of  good  citizenship.  Surely  there  can 
be  no  objection  to  this.  Surely  there  can  be  no  serious 
objection  thus  to  keep  open  the  door  of  hope  for  the 
thoroughly  decent,  upright,  self-respecting  man,  no  matter 
what  his  color. 

In  the  same  way,  while  Booker  T.  Washington  firmly 
believed  that  the  attention  of  the  Colored  race  should  be 
riveted,  not  on  political  life,  but  on  success  sought  in  the 
fields  of  honest  business  endeavor,  he  also  felt,  and  I  agreed 
with  him,  that  it  was  to  the  interest  of  both  races  that 
there  should  be  appointments  to  office  of  Black  Men  whose 
characters  and  abilities  were  such  that  if  they  were  White 
Men  their  appointments  would  be  hailed  as  being  well 
above  the  average,  and  creditable  from  every  standpoint. 
He  also  felt,  and  I  agreed  with  him,  that  it  was  essential 
that  these  appointments  should  be  made  relatively  most 
numerous  in  the  North — for  it  is  worse  than  useless  to 
preach  virtue  to  others,  unless  the  preachers  themselves 
practise  it;  which  means  that  the  Northern  communities, 
which  pride  themselves  on  possessing  the  proper  attitude 
xiv 


PREFACE 

toward  the   Negro,   should   show  this  attitude   by  their 
own  acts  within  their  own  borders. 

I  profited  very  much  by  my  association  with  Booker  T. 
Washington.  I  owed  him  much  along  many  different 
lines.  I  valued  greatly  his  friendship  and  respect;  and 
when  he  died  I  mourned  his  loss  as  a  patriot  and  an 
American. 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Sagamore  Hilly 

August  28,  1916. 


XV 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 


Foreword  by  Robert  R.  Moton v 

Authors'  Preface vii 

Preface  by  Theodore  Roosevelt ix 

CHAPTER 

I.    The  Man  and  His  School  in  the  Making    .    .  3 

II.    Leader  of  His  Race 19 

III.  Washington:  the  Educator 57 

IV.  The  Rights  of  the  Negro 82 

V.     Meeting  Race  Prejudice 107 

VI.    Getting  Close  to  the  People 135 

VII.     Booker  Washington  and  the  Negro  Farmer  .  164 

VIII.     Booker  Washington  and  the  Negro  Business 

Man 185 

IX.     Booker  Washington  Among  His  Students  .     .  222 

X.     Raising  Hundreds  of  Thousands  a  Year    .     .  248 

XI.    Managing  a  Great  Institution 272 

XII.    Washington:  The  Man 300 


xvn 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
Booker  T.  Washington  ....    Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Tuskegee  in  the  making.  Nothing  delighted  Mr. 
Washington  more  than  to  see  his  students  do- 
ing the  actual  work  of  erecting  the  Tuskegee 
Institute   buildings  .         .         .         .         .  12 

Tuskegee  Institute  students  laying  the  foundation 

for  one  of  the  four  Emery  buildings       .         .  14 

"His  influence,  like  that  of  his  school,  was  at  first 
community  wide,  then  county  wide,  then  State 
wide,  and  finally  nation  wide"        ...  16 

A  study  in  black.  Note  the  tensity  of  expression 
with  which  the  group  is  following  his  each  and 
every  word       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         32 

Showing  some  of  the  teams  of  farmers  attending  the 

Annual  Tuskegee  Negro  Conference       .         .         58 

An  academic  class.     A  problem  in  brick  masonry         62 

Mr.  Washington  in  characteristic  pose  addressing 

an  audience      .......       136 

Mr.  Washington  silhouetted  against  the  crowd  upon 

one  of  his  educational  tours      ....        136 

Mr.  Washington  in  typical  pose  speaking  to  an 

audience 136 

xix 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
FACE 


A  party  of  friends  who  accompanied  Dr.  Washing- 
ton on  one  of  his  educational  tours         .         .       138 

This  old  woman  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the 

Tuskegee  Negro  Conference     ....       170 

The  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  Tuskegee  stu- 
dent body  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  during  the 
past  year  students  have  come  from  the  foreign 
countries  or  colonies  of  foreign  countries  in- 
dicated by  the  various  flags  shown  in  this  pic- 
ture   238 

In  1906  the  Tuskegee  Institute  celebrated  its  25th 
Anniversary.  A  group  of  well-known  Ameri- 
can characters  attended  ....       248 

Some  of  Mr.  Washington's  humble  friends     .         .       274 

Soil  analysis.  The  students  are  required  to  work 
out  in  the  laboratory  the  problems  of  the  field 
and  the  shop  ......       274 

Mr.  Washington  was  a  great  believer  in  the  sweet 

potato  280 

Mr.  Washington  had  this  picture  especially  posed 
to  show  off"  to  the  best  advantage  a  part  of  the 
Tuskegee  dairy  herd        .....       290 

Mr.  Washington  feeding  his  chickens  with  green 

stuffs  raised  in  his  own  garden       .         .         .       306 

Mr.  Washington  in  his  onion  patch        .         .         .       306 

Mr.  Washington  sorting  in  his  lettuce  bed       .         .       306 


xx 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

BUILDER  OF  A  CIVILIZATION 


CHAPTER  ONE 

THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL  IN  THE  MAKING 

IT  CAME  about  that  in  the  year  1880,  in  Macon 
County,  Alabama,  a  certain  ex-Confederate  colonel  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  if  he  could  secure  the  Negro  vote  he 
could  beat  his  rival  and  win  the  seat  he  coveted  in  the 
State  Legislature.  Accordingly,  the  colonel  went  to  the 
leading  Negro  in  the  town  of  Tuskegee  and  asked  him 
what  he  could  do  to  secure  the  Negro  vote,  for  Negroes 
then  voted  in  Alabama  without  restriction.  This  man, 
Lewis  Adams  by  name,  himself  an  ex-slave,  promptly  re- 
plied that  what  his  race  most  wanted  was  education  and 
what  they  most  needed  was  industrial  education,  and 
that  if  he  (the  colonel)  would  agree  to  work  for  the  pas- 
sage of  a  bill  appropriating  money  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  industrial  school  for  Negroes,  he  (Adams)  would  help  to 
get  for  him  the  Negro  vote  and  the  election.  This  bargain 
between  an  ex-slaveholder  and  an  ex-slave  was  made  and 
faithfully  observed  on  both  sides,  with  the  result  that  the 
following  year  the  Legislature  of  Alabama  appropriated 
$2,000  a  year  for  the  establishment  of  a  normal  and  in- 
dustrial school  for  Negroes  in  the  town  of  Tuskegee.  On 
the  recommendation  of  General  Armstrong  of  Hampton 
Institute  a  young  colored  man,  Booker  T.  Washington,  a 

3 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

recent  graduate  of  and  teacher  at  the  Institute,  was  called 
from  there  to  take  charge  of  this  landless,  buildingless, 
teacherless,  and  studentless  institution  of  learning. 

This  move  turned  out  to  be  a  fatal  mistake  in  the  politi- 
cal career  of  the  colonel.  The  appellation  of  "nigger 
lover"  kept  him  ever  after  firmly  wedged  in  his  political 
grave.  Thus,  by  the  same  stroke,  was  the  career  of  an  ex- 
slaveholder  wrecked  and  that  of  an  ex-slave  made.  This 
political  blunder  of  a  local  office-seeker  gave  to  education 
one  of  its  great  formative  institutions,  to  the  Negro  race  its 
greatest  leader,  and  to  America  one  of  its  greatest  citizens. 

One  is  tempted  to  feel  that  Booker  T.  Washington  was 
always  popular  and  successful.  On  the  contrary,  for 
many  years  he  had  to  fight  his  way  inch  by  inch  against  the 
bitterest  opposition,  not  only  of  the  whites,  but  of  his  own 
race.  At  that  time  there  was  scarcely  a  Negro  leader  of 
any  prominence  who  was  not  either  a  politician  or  a 
preacher.  In  the  introduction  to  "Up  from  Slavery,"  Mr. 
Walter  H.  Page  says  of  his  first  experience  many  years  ago 
with  Booker  Washington:  "I  had  occasion  to  write  to  him, 
and  I  addressed  him  as  'The  Rev.  Booker  T.  Washington.' 
In  his  reply  there  was  no  mention  of  my  addressing  him  as 
a  clergyman.  But  when  I  had  occasion  to  write  to  him 
again,  and  persisted  in  making  him  a  preacher,  his  second 
letter  brought  a  postscript:  'I  have  no  claim  to  Rev.'  I 
knew  most  of  the  colored  men  who  at  that  time  had  become 
prominent  as  leaders  of  their  race,  but  I  had  not  then 
known  one  who  was  neither  a  politician  nor  a  preacher;  and 
I  had  not  heard  of  the  head  of  an  important  colored  school 

4 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

who  was  not  a  preacher.  'A  new  kind  of  man  in  the 
colored  world,'  I  said  to  myself — 'a  new  kind  of  man 
surely  if  he  looks  upon  his  task  as  an  economic  one  instead 
of  a  theological  one." 

And  just  because  Booker  Washington  did  look  "upon 
his  task  as  an  economic  one  instead  of  a  theological  one"  he 
was  at  first  regarded  with  suspicion  by  most  of  the 
preachers  of  his  race  and  by  some  openly  denounced  as 
irreligious  and  the  founder  of  an  irreligious  school.  Like 
so  many  men  of  greater  opportunity  in  all  ages  and  places, 
many  of  these  Negro  ministers  confounded  theology  and 
religion.  Finding  no  theology  about  Booker  Washington 
or  his  school,  they  assumed  there  was  no  religion.  Some 
of  them  even  went  so  far  as  to  warn  their  congregations 
from  the  pulpit  to  keep  away  from  this  Godless  man  and 
his  Godless  school.  To  this  formidable  and  at  first  almost 
universal  opposition  from  the  leaders  among  his  own 
people  was  added  the  more  natural  opposition  of  the 
neighboring  white  men  who  assumed  that  he  was  "spoiling 
the  niggers"  by  education.  A  youth  with  a  high  collar, 
loud  necktie,  checked  suit,  and  patent-leather  shoes, 
dangling  a  cane,  smoking  a  cigarette,  and  loitering  im- 
pudently on  a  street  corner  was  their  mental  picture  of  an 
educated  Negro. 

Among  the  original  group  of  thirty  students  with  whom 
Mr.  Washington  started  Tuskegee  Institute  on  an  old 
plantation  equipped  with  a  kitchen,  a  stable,  and  a  hen- 
house, was  a  now  elderly  man  who  to-day  has  charge  of  the 
spacious  and  beautiful  grounds  of  the  Institute.     He  was 

5 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

approaching  middle   age  when   he  entered   this   original 
Tuskegee  class.     The  following  is  a  paraphrase  of  his  ac- 
count of  the  early  days  of  the  school :  "After  we'd  been  out 
on  the  plantation  three  or  four  weeks  Mr.  Washington 
came  into  the  schoolroom  and  said:     'To-morrow  we're 
going  to  have  a  chopping  bee.     All  of  you  that  have  an  axe, 
or  can  borrow  one,  must  bring  it.     I  will  try  and  provide 
those  of  you  who  cannot  furnish  an  axe.     We  will  dismiss 
school  early  to-morrow  afternoon  and  start  for  the  chop- 
ping bee.'    So  we  came  to  school  next  day  with  the  axes,  all 
of  us  that  could  get  them;  we  were  all  excited  and  eager 
for  that  chopping  bee,  and  we  were  all  discussing  what  it 
would  be  like,  because  we  had  never  been  to  one  before. 
So  in  the  afternoon  Mr.  Washington  said  it  was  time  for 
that  chopping  bee,  so  he  put  his  axe  over  his  shoulder  and 
led  us  to  the  woods  and  put  us  to  work  cutting  the  trees  and 
clearing  the  land.     He  went  right  in  and  worked  harder 
and  faster  and  handled  his  axe  better  than  any  of  us.    After 
a  while  we  found  that  a  chopping  bee,  as  he  called  it,  was  no 
different  from  just  plain  cutting  down  trees  and  clearing 
the  land.     There  wasn't  anything  new  about  that — we  all 
had  had  all  we  wanted  of  it.     Some  of  the  boys  said  they 
didn't  come  to  school  to  cut  down  trees  and  clear  land,  but 
they  couldn't  say  they  were  too  good  for  that  kind  of  work 
when  Mr.  Washington  himself  was  at  it  harder  than  any  of 
them.     So  he  kept  with  us  for  some  days  till  everybody 
had  his  idea.     Then  he  went  off  to  do  something  more  im- 
portant. 

"Now,  in  those  days  he  used  to  go  off  every  Saturday 
6 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

morning  and  he  wouldn't  come  back  till  Monday  morning. 
He'd  travel  all  round  the  country  drumming  up  students 
for  the  school  and  telling  the  people  to  send  their  children. 
And  on  Sunday  he'd  get  the  preachers  to  let  him  get  up  in 
their  pulpits  and  tell  the  people  about  the  school  after  they 
had  finished  preaching.  And  the  preachers  would  warn 
their  people  against  him  and  his  school,  because  they  said 
it  wasn't  Methodist,  and  it  wasn't  Baptist,  and  it  wasn't 
Presbyterian,  and  it  wasn't  Episcopalian,  and  it  wasn't 
Christian.  And  they  told  the  people  to  keep  their  children 
away  from  that  Godless  man  and  his  school.  But  when  he 
came  along  and  asked  to  speak  to  the  people  they  had  to 
leave  him,  just  as  everybody  always  did — let  him  do  just 
what  he  wanted  to  do.  And  when  they  heard  him,  the 
people,  they  didn't  pay  no  attention  to  the  preachers,  they 
just  sent  their  children  as  fast  as  ever  they  could  contrive 
it. 

"Now,  in  those  days  Mr.  Washington  didn't  have  a 
horse,  nor  a  mule,  nor  a  wagon,  and  he  wanted  to  cover 
more  country  on  those  trips  than  he  could  afoot,  so  he'd 
just  go  out  in  the  middle  of  the  road  and  when  some  old 
black  man  would  come  along  driving  his  mule  wagon  he'd 
stop  him  and  talk  with  him,  and  tell  him  about  the  school 
and  what  it  was  going  to  do  for  the  black  folks,  and  then 
he'd  say:  'Now,  Uncle,  you  can  help  by  bringing  your 
wagon  and  mule  round  at  nine  o'clock  Saturday  morning 
for  me  to  go  off  round  the  country  telling  the  people  about 
the  school.  Now,  remember,  Uncle  Jake,  please  be  here 
promptly  at  nine,'  and  the  old  man  would  say,  'Yes,  boss, 

7 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

I  sure  will  be  here!'  That  was  how  he  did  it — when  he 
needed  anything  he'd  go  out  and  put  his  hand  on  it.  First, 
he  could  put  his  hand  on  anything  he  wanted  round  the 
town;  then,  he  could  put  his  hand  on  anything  he  wanted 
all  over  the  county;  then  he  could  put  his  hand  on  any- 
thing he  wanted  all  over  the  State;  and  then  finally  they  do 
tell  me  he  could  put  his  hand  on  anything  he  wanted  away 
up  to  New  York. 

"In  those  days,  after  we  came  to  live  here  on  the 
'plantation,'  I  used  to  take  the  wheelbarrow  and  go  round 
to  the  office  when  Mr.  Washington  opened  up  the  mail  in 
the  morning,  and  if  there  was  money  in  the  mail  then  I 
could  go  along  to  the  town  with  the  wheelbarrow  and  get 
provisions,  and  if  there  was  no  money  then  there  was  no 
occasion  to  go  to  town,  and  we'd  just  eat  what  we  had  left. 
Most  of  the  white  storekeepers  wouldn't  give  us  credit,  and 
they  didn't  want  a  'nigger  school'  here  anyhow.  Times 
have  changed.  Now  those  storekeepers  get  a  large  pro- 
portion of  their  trade  here  at  the  Institute,  and  if  there 
should  be  any  talk  of  moving,  they'd  just  get  up  and  fight 
to  the  last  to  keep  us  here  and  keep  our  trade. 

"And  in  those  days  the  Negro  preachersfor  the  most  of 
them,  and  the  white  folks,  or  the  most  of  them,  were  al- 
ways trying  to  dispute  with  Mr.  Washington  and  quarrel 
with  him,  but  he  just  kept  his  mouth  shut  and  went  ahead. 
He  kept  pleasant  and  he  wouldn't  dispute  with  them,  nor 
argue  with  them,  nor  quarrel  with  them.  When  the  white 
folks  would  come  round  and  tell  him  he  was  'spoiling  good 
niggers  by  education,'  he  would  just  ask  them  to  wait 
8 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

patiently  and  give  him  time  to  show  them  what  the  right 
kind  of  education  would  do.  And  when  the  colored 
preachers  would  come  round  and  tell  him  he  was  no 
Christian,  and  his  school  had  no  religion,  he  would  ask 
them  to  just  wait  and  see  if  the  boys  and  girls  were  any 
less  Christian  because  of  the  education  they  were  get- 
ting. But  whoever  came  along  and  whatever  happened 
Mr.  Washington  just  kept  his  mouth  shut  and  went 
ahead. 

"After  two  years  of  school  I  went  out  and  rented  some 
land  and  planted  cotton,  and  just  about  time  to  harvest 
my  crop  Mr.  Washington  sent  for  me  one  Saturday  and 
said :  'I  need  you.  I  want  you  to  come  back  and  work  for 
the  school  on  the  farm.  I  want  you  to  start  in  Monday 
morning.'  When  I  told  him  about  my  cotton  crop  just 
ready  to  be  picked  he  said :  'Can't  help  that,  we  need  you. 
You'll  have  to  arrange  with  your  neighbors  to  harvest 
your  crop  for  you.' " 

To  the  inquiry,  "Well,  did  you  come?"  the  old  man  re- 
plied, "Of  course  I  did.  When  Mr.  Washington  said  come 
I  came  same  as  everybody  did  what  he  told  them.  I  got  a 
neighbor  to  harvest  my  crop  and  I  lost  money  on  it,  but  I 
came  to  work  that  Monday  morning  more  than  thirty  years 
ago,  and  I've  been  here  ever  since." 

The  idea  of  not  doing  what  Mr.  Washington  wanted  him 
to  do,  or  even  arguing  the  matter,  was  evidently  incon- 
ceivable to  this  old  man.  He  had  always  obeyed  Mr. 
Washington  just  as  he  had  obeyed  the  laws  of  nature  by 
sleeping  and  eating.     That  is  the  kind  of  control  which 

9 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Booker  Washington  always  exercised  over  his  fellow-work- 
ers. He  accepted  their  implicit  obedience  as  naturally 
and  simply  as  they  gave  it. 

As  Mr.  Page  also  points  out  in  the  introduction  to  "Up 
from  Slavery,"  however  humble  Mr.  Washington's  origin 
may  have  been,  what  might  be  termed  his  intellectual 
pedigree  was  of  the  highest  and  finest.  He  may  be  called, 
in  fact,  the  spiritual  grandson  of  the  great  Dr.  Mark  Hop- 
kins of  Williams  College.  Just  as  Samuel  Armstrong  was 
perhaps  the  most  receptive  of  Mark  Hopkins'  pupils,  so 
Booker  Washington  became  the  most  receptive  pupil  of 
Samuel  Armstrong.  As  says  Mr.  Page:  "To  the  for- 
mation of  Mr.  Washington's  character,  then,  went  the  mis- 
sionary zeal  of  New  England,  influenced  by  one  of  the 
strongest  personalities  in  modern  education,  and  the  wide- 
reaching  moral  earnestness  of  General  Armstrong  himself." 
In  his  autobiography  Mr.  Washington  thus  describes 
General  Armstrong's  influence  and  the  impression  he  made 
upon  him:  "It  has  been  my  fortune  to  meet  personally 
many  of  what  are  called  great  characters,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  never  met 
any  man  who,  in  my  estimation,  was  the  equal  of  General 
Armstrong.  Fresh  from  the  degrading  influences  of  the 
slave  plantation  and  the  coal  mines,  it  was  a  rare  privilege 
for  me  to  be  permitted  to  come  into  direct  contact  with 
such  a  character  as  General  Armstrong.  I  shall  always  re- 
member that  the  first  time  I  went  into  his  presence  he 
made  the  impression  upon  me  of  being  a  perfect  man;  I 
was  made  to  feel  that  there  was  something  about  him  that 
10 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

was  superhuman.  It  was  my  privilege  to  know  the 
General  personally  from  the  time  I  entered  Hampton  till  he 
died,  and  the  more  I  saw  of  him  the  greater  he  grew  in  my 
estimation.  One  might  have  removed  from  Hampton  all 
the  buildings,  classrooms,  teachers,  and  industries,  and 
given  the  men  and  women  there  the  opportunity  of  coming 
into  daily  contact  with  General  Armstrong,  and  that  alone 
would  have  been  a  liberal  education.  (This  recalls 
President  Garfield's  definition  of  a  university  when  he  said, 
'my  idea  of  a  university  is  a  log  with  Mark  Hopkins  on  one 
end  and  a  boy  on  the  other.')  The  older  I  grow,  the  more 
I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no  education  which  one  can 
get  from  books  and  costly  apparatus  that  is  equal  to  that 
which  can  be  gotten  from  contact  with  great  men  and 
women.  Instead  of  studying  books  so  constantly,  how  I 
wish  that  our  schools  and  colleges  might  learn  to  study 
men  and  things!" 

When  the  young  man  imbued  with  these  ideas  and 
fresh  from  these  influences  found  himself  responsible  for 
the  destinies  of  a  studentless,  teacherless,  buildingless,  and 
landless  school  it  is  significant  how  he  went  to  work  to 
supply  these  manifold  deficiencies.  First,  he  found  a 
place  in  which  to  open  the  school — a  dilapidated  shanty 
church,  the  A.  M.  E.  Zion  Church  for  Negroes,  in  the  town 
of  Tuskegee.  Next  he  went  about  the  surrounding 
countryside,  found  out  exactly  under  what  conditions  the 
people  were  living  and  what  their  needs  were,  and  ad- 
vertised the  school  among  the  class  of  people  whom  he 
wanted  to  have  attend  it.     After  returning  from  these  ex- 

n 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

periences  he  said:  "I  saw  more  clearly  than  ever  the  wis- 
dom of  the  system  which  General  Armstrong  had  in- 
augurated at  Hampton.  To  take  the  children  of  such 
people  as  I  had  been  among  for  a  month,  and  each  day  give 
them  a  few  hours  of  mere  book  education,  I  felt  would  be 
almost  a  waste  of  time." 

Six  weeks  after  the  school  was  opened,  on  July  4,  1881,  in 
the  shanty  Methodist  Church  with  thirty  students,  Miss 
Olivia  A.  Davidson  entered  the  school,  the  enrollment  of 
which  had  already  grown  to  fifty,  as  assistant  teacher. 
She  subsequently  became  Mrs.  Washington.  The  school 
then  had  students,  a  teacher,  and  a  building  such  as  it  was, 
but  it  had  no  land.  It  was  succeeding  in  so  far  as  teaching 
these  eager  and  knowledge  hungry  young  people  what 
could  be  learned  from  books,  but  little  more.  Mr.  Wash- 
ington found  that  about  85  per  cent,  of  the  Negroes  of  the 
Gulf  States  lived  on  the  land  and  were  dependent  upon 
agriculture  for  their  livelihood.  Hence,  he  reasoned  that 
it  was  of  supreme  importance  to  teach  them  how  to  live  on 
the  land  to  the  best  advantage.  In  order  to  teach  the 
students  how  to  live  on  the  land  the  school  itself  must  have 
land.  About  this  time  an  old  plantation  near  the  town  of 
Tuskegee  came  upon  the  market.  The  school  had  no 
money.  Mr.  Washington  had  no  money,  and  the  #2,000  a 
year  from  the  State  Treasury  could  be  used  only  for  the 
payment  of  teachers.  Accordingly  Mr.  Washington  per- 
sonally borrowed  the  #250,  from  a  personal  friend,  necessary 
to  secure  title  to  the  land,  and  moved  the  school  from  the 
shanty  church  to  the  comparative  comfort  of  four  aged 
12 


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THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

cabins  formerly  used  as  the  dining-room,  kitchen,  stable, 
and  hen-house  of  the  plantation. 

And  as  soon  as  they  were  established  in  their  new  quar- 
ters he  organized  the  "chopping  bee"  already  described  and 
cleared  some  of  the  land  so  that  it  could  be  used  for  crops. 
He  did  not  clear  and  plant  this  land  to  give  his  students 
agricultural  training.  He  did  it  for  the  purpose  that  all 
,land  was  originally  cleared  and  planted — to  get  food. 
He,  of  course,  realized  that  the  educational  content  of  this 
work  was  great — greater  than  any  possible  textbook  ex- 
ercises in  the  classroom.  He  then  and  there  began  the 
long  and  difficult  task  of  teaching  his  people  that  physical 
work,  and  particularly  farm  work,  if  rightly  done  was  edu- 
cation, and  that  education  was  work.  To  secure  the  ac- 
ceptance of  this  truth  by  a  race  only  recently  emancipated 
from  over  two  hundred  years  of  unrequited  toil — a  race 
that  had  always  regarded  freedom  from  the  necessity  for 
work  as  an  indication  of  superiority — was  not  a  hopeful 
task.  To  them  education  was  the  antithesis  of  work.  It 
was  the  magic  elixir  which  emancipated  all  those  fortunate 
enough  to  drink  of  it  from  the  necessity  for  work. 

He  also  began  to  emphasize  at  this  time  his  familiar 
dictum  that  learning  to  do  the  common  things  of  life  in  an 
uncommon  way  was  an  essential  part  of  real  education. 
Probably  the  reverse  of  this  dictum,  namely,  learning  to  do 
the  uncommon  things  of  life  in  a  common  way — would 
have  more  nearly  corresponded  to  the  popular  conception 
of  education  among  most  Negroes  and  many  whites. 

Mr.  Washington  later  developed   a  brickyard  where, 

13 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

after  a  series  of  failures  sufficient  to  convince  any  ordinary 
man  of  the  hopelessness  of  the  enterprise,  they  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  baking  creditable  bricks  which  were  used  by  the 
students  in  the  construction  of  buildings  for  the  school. 
He  did  not  start  this  brickyard  for  the  purpose  of 
vocational  training  any  more  than  he  started  the  farm 
for  agricultural  training.  He  started  it  because  they 
needed  bricks  with  which  to  build  buildings  in  which  to 
live,  just  as  he  started  the  farm  to  raise  food  upon  which  to 
live.  He  saw  to  it,  however,  that  the  brickyard  was  used 
as  an  instrument  of  education  and  was  never  allowed  to 
degenerate  into  a  mere  brickyard  and  nothing  more,  just 
as  he  saw  to  it  that  the  farm  was  used  as  a  means  of  educa- 
tion and  was  not  allowed  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  farm  and 
nothing  more.  It  was  even  more  difficult  to  persuade  the 
students  that  the  hard,  heavy,  dirty  work  of  the  brickyard 
was  education  than  it  had  been  to  persuade  them  that  farm 
work  was  education.  Mr.  Washington  wasted  no  time  in 
arguing  this  point,  however,  but  merely  insisted  that  with- 
out bricks  they  could  not  put  up  proper  buildings,  and  that 
without  buildings  they  could  not  have  such  a  school  as  they 
must  have  not  only  for  themselves  but  for  their  race. 

So  this  originally  landless,  buildingless,  studentless,  and 
teacherless  school  came  eventually  to  have  all  four  of  these 
obvious  requisites,  but  it  still  lacked  a  fundamental  re- 
quirement for  the  effective  fulfillment  of  its  purpose.  It 
lacked  a  boarding  department  where  the  students  might 
learn  to  live.  In  his  tours  among  the  people  Mr.  Wash- 
ington had  found  the  great  majority  in  the  plantation  dis- 

H 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

tricts  living  on  fat  pork  and  corn  bread,  and  sleeping  in  one- 
room  cabins.  They  planted  nothing  but  cotton,  bought 
their  food  at  the  nearest  village  or  town  market  instead  of 
raising  it,  and  lived  under  conditions  where  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  hygiene  and  decent  social  intercourse  were 
both  unknown  and  impossible  of  application.  The  young 
men  and  women  from  such  homes  must  be  taught  how  to 
live  in  houses  with  more  than  one  room,  how  to  keep  their 
persons  and  their  surroundings  clean,  how  to  sleep  in  a  bed 
between  sheets,  how  not  only  to  raise  but  to  prepare,  serve, 
and  eat  a  healthful  variety  of  proper  food  at  regular  and 
stated  intervals,  to  say  nothing  of  a  trade  by  which  to 
maintain  themselves  both  during  their  course  and  after 
graduation  as  well  as  the  usual  book  learning  of  the  ordi- 
nary school.  Obviously  they  could  not  be  taught  these 
things  unless  they  lived  day  and  night  on  the  school 
grounds  instead  of  boarding  about  with  people  whose 
standards  of  living  were  very  little  if  at  all  higher  than 
those  of  their  homes.  Accordingly  volunteers  were  called 
for,  and  the  students  made  an  excavation  under  their  new 
brick  building  which  was  made  into  a  basement  kitchen 
and  dining-room.  As  Mr.  Washington  says  in  "Up  from 
Slavery,"  "We  had  nothing  but  the  students  and  their  ap- 
petites with  which  to  begin  a  boarding  department/'  As 
soon  as  this  boarding  department  was  established  it  be- 
came possible  to  influence  directly  the  lives  of  the  students 
during  the  entire  twenty-four  hours  of  the  day.  From  then 
on  each  student  was  required  to  have  and  to  use  a  tooth- 
brush.    Mr.  Washington  has  since  remarked  that,  in  his 

IS 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

opinion,  the  toothbrush  is  the  most  potent  single  instrument 
of  civilization.  Then,  too,  it  was  possible  for  him  to  begin 
to  enforce  this  injunction  taken  from  one  of  his  now  well- 
known  Sunday  night  talks,  "Make  a  study  of  the  prepara- 
tion of  food.     See  to  it  that  a  certain  ceremony,  a  certain 

importance,  be  attached  to  the  partaking  of  the  food " 

This  exhortation  sounds  so  commonplace  as  to  be  scarcely 
noticed  by  the  average  reader,  but  just  put  yourself  in  the 
place  of  one  of  these  boys  or  girls  who  came  from  a  one- 
room  cabin  and  realize  what  a  profoundly  revolutionary, 
even  sensational,  injunction  it  is!  To  the  boy  or  girl  who 
had  snatched  a  morsel  of  food  here,  there,  or  anywhere 
when  prompted  by  the  gnawings  of  hunger,  who  had  never 
sat  down  to  a  regular  meal,  who  had  never  partaken  of  a 
meal  placed  upon  a  table  with  or  without  ceremony — 
imagine  what  it  meant  to  such  a  boy  or  girl  "to  see  to  it 
that  a  certain  ceremony,  a  certain  importance,  be  attached 
to  the  partaking  of  the  food  " — not  on  special  occasions  but 
at  each  one  of  the  three  meals  of  each  day! 

Finally  it  came  about  that  this  school  which  had  started 
with  a  paltry  $2,000  a  year,  a  great  need,  and  the  in- 
vincible determination  of  one  man,  came  to  have  land, 
buildings,  teachers,  students,  and  even  a  boarding  de- 
partment. But  in  Mr.  Washington's  view  there  was  still  a 
great  fundamental  lack  in  their  work.  They  were  doing 
nothing  directly  to  help  those  less  fortunate  than  them- 
selves— those  about  them  who  could  not  come  and  enjoy 
the  advantages  of  the  school.  Mr.  Washington  held  that 
as  soon  as  an  individual  got  hold  of  anything  as  useful  and 
16 


"•« 

ESjKS^SKSjwj  rfl                           T_.                           \    'I^B 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

"His  influence,  like  that  of  his  school,  was  at  first  community  wide,  then 
county  wide,  then  state  wide,  and  finally  nation  wide" 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  SCHOOL 

desirable  as  education  he  should  take  immediate  means  to 
hand  it  on  to  the  greatest  possible  number  of  those  who 
needed  it.  He  had  no  patience  with  those  persons  who 
would  climb  the  tree  of  knowledge  and  then  pull  the  ladder 
up  after  them. 

He  and  his  teachers  then  began  to  go  out  on  Sundays  and 
give  the  people  homely  talks  on  how  to  improve  their  living 
conditions.  They  encouraged  the  farmers  to  come  to  the 
school  farm  and  learn  how  to  grow  a  variety  of  crops  to 
supplement  the  cotton  crop  which  was  their  sole  reliance. 
They  relieved  the  distress  of  individual  families.  Mrs. 
Washington  gathered  together  in  an  old  loft  the  farmers' 
wives  and  daughters  who  were  in  the  habit  of  loafing  about 
the  village  of  Tuskegee  on  Saturday  afternoons  and  formed 
them  into  a  woman's  club  for  the  improvement  of  the  liv- 
ing conditions  in  their  homes  and  communities.  Mr. 
Washington  and  his  teachers  went  right  on  to  the  farms  and 
into  the  homes,  and  into  the  churches  and  the  schools,  and 
everywhere  showed,  for  the  most  part  by  concrete  object- 
lessons,  how  they  could  make  their  farms  more  productive, 
their  homes  more  comfortable,  their  schools  more  useful, 
and  their  church  services  more  inspiring.  All  this  was 
done  not  with  an  idea  of  starting  an  extension  department 
or  a  social  service  department,  but  merely  because  these 
people  needed  help,  and  Mr.  Washington  knew  that  both 
teachers  and  students  would  help  themselves  in  helping 
them.  Finally,  chiefly  through  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington, a  model  country  school  was  established  in  the 
district  adjoining  the  Institute's  property.     This  school  is 

17 


BOOKER  T.   WASHINGTON 

a  farm  home  where  the  young  teacher  and  his  wife,  both 
graduates  of  Tuskegee,  teach  the  boys  and  girls  who  come 
to  them  each  day  how  to  live  on  a  farm — teach  them  by 
practice  and  object-lesson  as  well  as  by  precept.  They 
follow  the  ordinary  country  school  curriculum,  but  that  is  a 
small  and  relatively  unimportant  part  of  what  this  school 
gives  its  pupils.  Then,  too,  the  teachers  of  Tuskegee  early 
started  campaigns  looking  to  the  extending  of  the  school 
terms  throughout  Macon  County  and  the  adjoining  coun- 
ties from  three  to  five  months,  as  was  customary,  to  nine 
months. 

And  this  work  of  Tuskegee  beyond  its  own  borders  grew 
as  constantly  in  volume  and  extent  as  the  work  within  its 
borders,  so  that  Tuskegee  soon  became  the  vital  force — 
the  yeast  that  was  raising  the  level  of  life  and  well-being 
throughout,  first,  the  town  and  neighborhood  of  Tuskegee, 
then  the  County  of  Macon,  then  the  surrounding  counties 
and  the  State  of  Alabama;  and  finally,  in  conjunction  with 
its  mother,  Hampton,  and  its  children  situated  at  strategic 
points  throughout  the  South,  the  entire  Negro  people  of  the 
South,  and  indirectly  the  whole  nation. 

And  as  the  school  grew,  so  grew  the  man  whose  life  was 
its  embodiment.  It  is  impossible  to  think  of  Booker 
Washington  and  Tuskegee  separately.  Just  as  he  typified 
Tuskegee,  so  Tuskegee  typified  him.  Just  as  he  made 
the  school,  so  the  school  made  him.  His  influence,  like  that 
of  his  school,  was  at  first  community  wide,  then  county 
wide,  then  State  wide,  and  finally  nation  wide. 


18 


CHAPTER  TWO 

LEADER    OF    HIS    RACE 

IN  1895,  fourteen  years  after  the  founding  of  Tuskegee 
Institute,  Booker  T.  Washington  was  selected  to 
represent  his  race  at  the  opening  of  the  Cotton  States 
and  International  Exposition  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  On 
this  occasion  he  mounted  the  platform,  to  make  the  first 
address  which  any  member  of  his  race  had  ever  made  be- 
fore any  representative  body  of  Southern  men  and  women, 
as  an  obscure  but  worthy  young  colored  man  who  had  com- 
mended himself  to  a  few  thinking  persons  by  building  up 
an  excellent  industrial  school  for  his  people.  He  came  off 
that  platform  amid  scenes  of  almost  hysterical  enthusiasm 
and  was  thenceforth  proclaimed  as  the  leader  of  his  race, 
the  Moses  of  his  people,  and  one  of  America's  great  men. 
In  this  epoch-making  speech  Booker  Washington  had 
presented  a  solution  of  an  apparently  insoluble  problem. 
He  had  offered  a  platform  upon  which,  as  Clark  Howell 
said  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution,  "both  races,  blacks  and 
whites,  could  stand  with  full  justice  to  each."  In  the 
course  of  the  speech  he  told  this  story:  "A  ship  lost  at  sea 
for  many  days  suddenly  sighted  a  friendly  vessel.  From 
the  mast  of  the  unfortunate  vessel  was  seen  a  signal: 
'Water,  water;  we  die  of  thirst!'     The  answer  from  the 

19 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

friendly  vessel  at  once  came  back:  'Cast  down  your 
bucket  where  you  are.'  A  second  time  the  signal,  'Water, 
water,  send  us  water!'  ran  up  from  the  distressed  vessel, 
and  was  answered:  'Cast  down  your  bucket  where  you 
are.'  And  a  third  and  fourth  signal  for  water  was  an- 
swered, 'Cast  down  your  bucket  where  you  are.'  The 
captain  of  the  distressed  vessel,  at  last  heeding  the  in- 
junction, cast  down  his  bucket,  and  it  came  up  full  of  fresh, 
sparkling  water  from  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon  River." 
He  then  appealed  to  his  own  people  to  "cast  down  their 
buckets  where  they  were"  by  making  friends  with  their 
white  neighbors  in  every  manly  way,  by  training  them- 
selves where  they  were  in  agriculture,  in  mechanics,  in 
commerce,  instead  of  trying  to  better  their  condition  by 
migration.  And  finally  to  the  Southern  white  people  he 
appealed  "to  cast  down  their  buckets  where  they  were" 
by  using  and  training  the  Negroes  whom  they  knew  rather 
than  seeking  to  import  foreign  laborers  whom  they  did  not 
know. 

When  he  reached  the  crux  and  climax  of  the  speech — the 
delicate  matter  of  the  relations  between  the  races,  socially 
— he  held  up  his  right  hand  with  his  fingers  outstretched 
and  said:  "In  all  things  that  are  purely  social  we  can  be  as 
separate  as  the  fingers,  yet  one  as  the  hand  in  all  things 
essential  to  mutual  progress."  At  this  remark  the  au- 
dience went  wild !  Ladies  stood  on  their  chairs  and  waved 
their  handkerchiefs,  while  men  threw  up  their  hats,  danced, 
and  catcalled.  An  old  ante-bellum  Negro,  who  had  been 
sitting  crosslegged  in  one  of  the  aisles,  wept  tears  of  pride 
20 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

and  joy  as  he  swayed  from  side  to  side.  By  this  state- 
ment, with  what  had  led  up  to  it,  Booker  Washington  cap- 
tured the  allegiance  of  all  really  representative  Southern 
whites,  and  by  consistently  adhering  to  this  position  he,  in 
an  ever-increasing  degree,  won  and  held  their  allegiance 
till  the  end. 

Frederick  Douglass,  the  great  leader  of  his  race  during 
the  closing  days  of  slavery,  during  the  War  and  the  Re- 
construction period,  had  died  only  a  few  months  before. 
Everywhere,  by  leading  whites,  as  well  as  blacks,  Wash- 
ington was  acclaimed  as  the  successor_of  Douglass — the  new 
leader  of  the  Negro  race.  One  of  the  first  colored  men  so 
to  acclaim  him  was~Emmet  J.  Scott,  who  was  then  editing 
a  Negro  newspaper  in  Houston,  Texas,  and  little  realized 
that  he  was  to  become  the  most  intimate  associate  of  the 
new  leader.  In  an  editorial  Mr.  Scott  said  of  this  ad- 
dress: "Without  resort  to  exaggeration,  it  is  but  simple 
justice  to  call  the  address  great.  It  was  great!  Great,  in 
that  it  exhibited  the  speaker's  qualities  of  head  and  heart; 
great  in  that  he  could  and  did  discriminately  recognize  con- 
ditions as  they  affect  his  people,  and  greater  still  in  the 
absolute  modesty,  self-respect,  and  dignity  with  which  he 
presented  a  platform  upon  which,  as  Clark  Howell,  of  the 
Atlanta  Constitution  says:  'both  races,  blacks  and  whites, 
can  stand  with  full  justice  to  each."  Perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  feature  of  Booker  Washington's  leadership 
was  that  from  that  time  on  he  never  deviated  one  hair's 
breadth Jnjword  or  deed  from  the  platform  laid  down  in 
this  brief  ad  dress . 

21 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

It  was  not  to  be  expected,  however,  that  such  a  radically 
new  note  in  Negro  leadership  could  be  struck  without  some 
discord.  As  was  perfectly  natural,  some  more  or  less 
prominent  Negroes,  whose  mental  processes  followed  the 
lines  of  cleavage  between  the  races  engendered  by  the  em- 
bittering experiences  of  the  Reconstruction  period,  looked 
with  suspicion  upon  a  Negro  leader  who  had  won  the  ap- 
probation of  the  South,  of  leading  white  citizens,  press,  and 
public.  In  the  days  of  slavery  it  was  a  frequent  custom  on 
large  plantations  to  use  one  of  the  slaves  as  a  kind  of  stool 
pigeon  to  spy  upon  the  others  and  report  their  misdeeds. 
Naturally  such  persons  were  hated  and  despised  and  looked 
upon  as  traitors  to  their  race.  Hence,  it  came  about  that 
the  praise  of  a  white  man  was  apt  to  throw  suspicion  upon 
the  racial  loyalty  of  a  black  man.  This  habit  of  mind,  like 
all  mental  habits,  long  survived  the  system  and  circum- 
stances which  occasioned  it.  Therefore,  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  fact  that  the  white  press  throughout  the  South 
rang  with  his  praises  for  days  and  weeks  after  the  sen- 
sationally enthusiastic  reception  of  his  speech  at  the  ex- 
position should  not  be  accepted  as  a  desirable  endorsement 
of  the  new  leader  by  at  least  a  few  of  his  own  people. 

A  more  or  less  conspicuous  colored  preacher  summed  up 
this  slight  undertow  of  dissent  when  he  said:  "I  want  to 
pay  my  respects  next  to  a  colored  man.  He  is  a  great  man, 
too,  but  he  isn't  our  Moses,  as  the  white  people  are  pleased 
to  call  him.  Lallude  to^oxrke^:-X^WasJiington.  He  has 
been  with  the  white  people  so  long  that  he  has  learned  to 
throw  sop  with  the  rest.     He  made  a  speech  at  Atlanta  the 

22 


*J 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

other  day,  and  the  newspapers  of  all  the  large  cities  praised 
it  and  called  it  the  greatest  speech  ever  delivered  by  a  <^(\4^ 

colored  man.     When  I  heard  that,  I  said:  'There  must  be  ,     .      _£>^ 
something  wrong  with  itrorthe  white  people  would  not  be  ^  ^    \ 

praising  it  so.'  I  got  the  speech  and  read  it.  Then  I  said, 
TAh,  here  it  is,'  and  I  read  his  words,  'the  colored  people  do 
not  want  social  equality.'  (This  man's  interpretation  of 
this  sentence  in  the  speech,  "The  wisest  among  my  race 
understand  that  the  agitation  of  questions  of  social 
equality  is  the  extremest  folly,  and  that  progress  in  the  en- 
joyment of  all  the  privileges  that  will  come  to  us  must  be 
the  result  of  severe  and  constant  struggle  rather  than  of 
artificial  forcing.")  I  tell  you  that  is  a  lie.  We  do  want 
social  equality.  Why,  don't  you  want  your  manhood 
recognized?  Then  Mr.  Washington  said  that  our  emanci- 
pation and  enfranchisement  were  untimely  and  a  mistake; 
that  we  were  not  ready  for  it.  (Naturally,  Mr.  Washing- 
ton said  no  such  thing.)  What  did  he  say  that  for  but  to 
tickle  the  palates  of  the  white  people?  Oh,  yes,  he  was 
shrewd.  He  will  get  many  hundreds  of  dollars  for  his 
school  by  it." 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  this  attitude  represented  any 
large  or  important  body  of  opinion  among  the  Negroes. 
The  great  majority  both  of  the  leaders  and  the  rank  and 
file  enthusiastically  accepted  both  the  new  leader  and  his 
new  kind  of  leadership.  The  small  minority,  however, 
holding  the  view  of  the  preacher  quoted,  continued 
to  cause  Booker  Washington  some  annoyance,  which, 
although   continuously  lessening,   persisted   in  some  de- 

23 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

gree  throughout  his  life.  This  numerically  small  and 
individually  unimportant  element  of  the  Negroes  in 
America  would  hardly  warrant  even  passing  mention  ex- 
cept that  the  always  carping  and  sometimes  bitter  criti- 
cisms of  these  persons  are  apt  to  confuse  the  well-wishers 
of  the  race  who  do  not  understand  the  situation. 

The  Negroes  holding  this  point  of  view  are  sometimes 
pleased  to  refer  to  themselves  as  the  Talented  Tenth. 
They  are  largely  city  dwellers  who  have  had  more  or  less  of 
what  they  term  "higher  education" — Latin,  Greek, 
Theology,  and  the  like.  A  number  of  these  persons  make 
all  or  a  part  of  their  living  by  publicly  bewailing  the 
wrongs  and  injustices  of  their  race  and  demanding  their 
redress  by  immediate  means.  Mr.  Washington's  emphasis 
upon  the  advantages  of  Negroes  in  America  and  the  debt 
of  gratitude  which  they  owe  to  the  whites,  who  have 
helped  them  to  make  more  progress  in  fifty  years  than  any 
other  race  ever  made  in  a  like  period,  is  naturally  very 
annoying  to  this  type  of  person.  In  spite  of  their  constant 
abuse  of  him  Mr.  Washington  some  years  ago  agreed  to 
confer  with  the  leaders  of  this  faction  to  see  if  a  program 
could  not  be  devised  through  which  all  could  work  to- 
gether instead  of  at  cross  purposes.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  chief  exponent  of  this  group  opened  the  first 
meeting  with  a  bitter  attack  upon  Mr.  Washington,  such  a 
program  was  adopted,  to  which,  before  the  conferences 
were  over,  all  duly  and  amicably  agreed  to  adhere.  Some 
of  the  more  restless  spirits  among  the  leaders  of  the 
Talented  Tenth  soon,  however,  broke  their  pledges,  repu- 

24 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

diated  the  whole  arrangement,  and  started  in  as  before  to 
denounce  Mr.  Washington  and  those  who  thought  and 
acted  with  him. 

After  the  Atlanta  speech  Mr.  Washington's  task  was  a 
dual  one.  While  the  active  head  of  his  great  and  rapidly 
growing  institution,  he  was  also  the  generally  accepted 
leader  of  his  race.  It  is  with  his  leadership  of  his  race 
that  we  are  concerned  in  this  chapter.  His  duties  in  this 
capacity  were  vast  and  ill  defined,  and  his  responsibility 
exceedingly  heavy.  He  said,  himself,  that  when  he 
first  came  to  be  talked  of  as  the  leader  of  his  race  he  was 
somewhat  at  a  loss  to  know  what  was  expected  of  him 
in  that  capacity.  His  tasks  in  this  direction,  however, 
were  thrust  upon  him  so  thick  and  fast  that  he  had  not  long 
to  remain  in  this  state  of  mind.  After  the  Atlanta  speech 
he  was  in  almost  daily  contact  with  what  was  befalling  his 
people  in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  to  some  extent  all 
over  the  world.  Through  his  press  clipping  service,  sup- 
plemented by  myriads  of  letters  and  personal  reports, 
practically  every  event  of  any  significance  to  his  race  came 
to  his  notice.  Whan  he  heard  of  rioting,  lynching,  or 
serious  trouble  in  any  community  he  sent  a  message  of 
advice,  encouragement,  or  warning  to  the  leading  Negroes 
of  the  locality  and  sometimes  to  the  whites  whom  he  knew 
to  be  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Negroes.  When  the 
trouble  was  sufficiently  serious  to  warrant  it  he  went  in 
person  to  the  scene.  When  he  heard  of  a  Negro  winning  a 
prize  at  a  county  fair,  or  being  placed  in  some  position  of 
unusual  trust  and  distinction,  he  wrote  him  a  letter  of  con- 

25 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

gratulation  and  learned  the  circumstances  so  that  he  might 
cite  the  incident  by  way  of  encouragement  to  others. 

After  the  riots  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  some  years  ago,  when 
infuriated  white  mobs  foiled  in  their  efforts  to  lynch  a 
Negro  murderer,  burned,  killed,  and  laid  waste  right  and 
left  in  the  Negro  section  of  the  town,  Mr.  Washington,  who 
was  in  the  North  at  the  time,  boarded  the  first  train  for  the 
city,  arrived  just  after  the  bloody  scenes,  gathered  together 
his  frightened  people  amid  the  smoking  ruins  of  their 
homes,  soothed,  calmed,  and  cheered  them.  He  then  went 
to  the  leading  city  officials,  secured  from  them  a  promise  of 
succor  for  the  stricken  people  and  protection  against 
further  attack.  Next  he  went  to  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  secured  his  sympathy  and  cooperation,  and  with 
him  organized  a'  conference  of  leading  State  and  city 
officials  and  other  representative  men  who  there  and  then 
mapped  out  a  program  tending  to  prevent  the  recurrence 
of  such  race  riots — a  program  which  up  to  the  present  time 
has  successfully  fulfilled  its  purpose.  It  is  characteristic 
of  Mr.  Washington's  methods  that  he  turned  this  disaster 
into  an  ultimate  blessing  for  the  very  community  that  was 
afflicted.  ( 

Mr.  Washington  was  the  kind  of  leader  who  kept  very 
close  to  the  plain  people.  He  knew  their  every-day  lives, 
their  weaknesses,  their  temptations.  To  use  a  slang 
phrase,  he  knew  exactly  what  they  "were  up  against" 
whether  they  lived  in  country  or  city.  Within  a  com- 
paratively short  period  before  his  death  he  addressed  two 
audiences  as  widely  separated  by  distance  and  environ- 
26 


LEADER  OF  HIS   RACE 

ment  as  the  farmers  gathered  together  for  the  first  Negro 
Fair  of  southwestern  Georgia  at  Albany,  Georgia,  and  five 
thousand  Negro  residents  of  New  York  City  assembled 
in  the  Harlem  Casino.  He  told  those  Georgia  farmers 
how  much  land  they  owned  and  to  what  extent  it  was 
mortgaged,  how  much  land  they  leased,  how  much  cotton 
they  raised,  and  how  much  of  other  crops  they  raised,  or, 
rather,  did  not  raise;  how  many  mules  and  hogs  they 
owned,  and  how  they  could  with  profit  increase  their 
ownership  in  mules  and  hogs;  he  told  them  how  many 
drug  stores,  grocery  stores,  and  banks  in  the  State  and 
county  were  owned  by  Negroes;  and  then,  switching  from 
the  general  to  the  particular,  he  described  the  daily  life  of 
the  ordinary,  easy-going  tenant  farmer  of  the  locality.  He 
pictured  what  he  saw  when  he  came  out  of  his  unpainted 
house  in  the  morning:  that  gate  off"  the  hinges,  that 
broken  window-pane  with  an  old  coat  stuck  into  it,  that 
cotton  planted  right  up  to  the  doors  with  no  room  left  for  a 
garden,  and  no  garden;  and,  worse  than  all,  the  uncomfort- 
able knowledge  of  debts  concealed  from  the  hard-working 
wife  and  mother.  Then  he  pictured  what  that  same  man's 
place  might  be  and  should  become. 

It  was  once  said  of  a  certain  eminent  preacher  that  his 
logic  was  on  fire.  It  might  be  said  of  Booker  Washington 
that  his  statistics  were  on  fire.  He  marshalled  them  in 
such  a  way  that  they  were  dynamic  and  stirring  instead  of 
static  and  paralyzing,  as  we  all  know  them  to  our  sorrow. 
It  so  happened  that  Mr.  Washington  had  never  before  been 
in  southwestern  Georgia.     After  his  speech  one  old  farmer 

27 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

was  heard  to  say  as  he  shook  his  head:  "I  don't  understan' 
it!  Booker  T.  Washington  he  ain't  never  ben  here  befo', 
yit  he  knows  mo'  'bout  dese  parts  an'  mo'  'bout  us  den  what 
eny  of  us  knows  ourselves."  This  old  man  did  not  know 
that  one  of  Mr.  Washington's  most  painstaking  and 
efficient  assistants,  Mr.  Monroe  N.  Work,  the  editor  of  the 
Negro  Year  Book,  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  keeping  his 
chief  provided  with  this  startlingly  accurate  information 
about  his  people  in  every  section  of  the  United  States. 

On  this  occasion  there  were  on  the  platform  with  Mr. 
Washington  and  the  officials  of  the  fair  the  Mayor  of 
Albany  and  members  of  the  City  Council,  while  in  the 
audience  were  several  hundred  whites  on  one  side  of  the 
centre  aisle  and  twice  as  many  blacks  on  the  other.  And 
Mr.  Washington  would  alternately  address  himself  to  his 
white  and  black  audience.  He  would,  for  instance,  turn  to 
the  white  men  and  tell  them  that  he  had  never  known  a 
particularly  successful  black  man  who  could  not  trace  his 
original  success  to  the  aid  or  encouragement  he  had  re- 
ceived in  one  form  or  another  from  a  white  friend.  He 
would  tell  them  that  without  their  assistance  his  race  could 
never  have  made  more  progress  in  the  last  fifty  years  in  this 
country  than  any  similar  group  of  people  had  ever  made  in 
a  like  period  of  time.  After  he  had  raised  the  white 
section  of  his  audience  to  a  high  degree  of  self-congratula- 
tory complaisance  he  would  suddenly  shift  the  tenor  of  his 
remarks  and  ask  them  why  they  should  mar  this  splendid 
record  by  discriminating  against  the  weaker  race  in  mat- 
ters of  education,  by  destroying  their  confidence  in  the 
28 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

justice  of  the  courts  through  mob  violence,  and  by  the 
numerous  small,  mean  ways  in  which  race  prejudice  shows 
itself  and  retards  and  discourages  the  upward  struggle  of  a 
weaker  people.  As  he  proceeded  along  these  lines  one 
could  see  the  self-congratulatory  expression  fade  from  the 
faces  of  his  white  listeners. 

He  would  next  turn  to  his  own  people  and  tell  them  of 
their  phenomenal  progress  since  emancipation  and  of  the 
great  and  essential  part  they  had  played  in  the  upbuilding 
of  the  South — left  prostrate  by  the  Civil  War.  One  could 
see  their  eager,  upturned  faces  glow  with  pride  and  self- 
satisfaction.  But  suddenly  he  would  shift  the  tone  of  his 
comments  and  tell  them  how  sadly  those  of  them  who  were 
indolent  and  shiftless  and  unreliable  and  vicious  were  re- 
tarding the  upward  struggles  of  the  industrious  and  self- 
respecting  majority  and  how  they  were  perpetuating  the 
prejudice  against  the  whole  race.  And  as  he  pictured  this 
seamy  side  of  the  situation  one  could  see  the  glow  of  pride 
gradually  wilt  from  the  myriads  of  swarthy  upturned 
faces. 

Hardly  less  successful  than  his  use  of  statistics  was  his 
use  of  the  much-abused  funny  story.  He  never  told  a 
story,  however  good,  for  its  own  sake.  He  told  it  only 
when  it  would  most  effectively  drive  home  whatever  point 
he  happened  to  be  making.  In  this  same  speech  he  was 
saying  that  a  Negro  who  is  lazy  and  unreliable  and  does 
nothing  to  accumulate  property  or  improve  his  earning 
capacity  deserves  no  consideration  from  whites  or  blacks 
and  has  no  right  to  say  that  the  color  line  is  drawn  against 

29 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

him.  *  By  way  of  illustration  he  told  this  story:  "A  shift- 
less Southern  poor  white  asked  a  self-respecting  old  black 
man  for  three  cents  with  which  to  pay  his  ferry  fare  across 
a  river.  The  old  black  man  replied:  Ts  sorry  not  to  com- 
merdate  yer,  boss,  but  der  fac'  is  dat  a  man  what  ain't  got 
three  cents  is  jest  as  bad  off  on  one  side  ob  der  ribber  as  der 
udder.'" 

At  another  point  in  this  speech  he  was  telling  his  people 
not  to  be  discouraged  because  their  race  has  less  to  point  to 
than  other  races  in  the  way  of  past  achievements.  He  said 
that  after  all  it  was  the  future  that  was  of  vital  concern  and 
not  the  past,  and  that  the  future  was  theirs  to  a  peculiar 
degree  because  they  were  a  young  race.  And  to  illustrate 
their  situation  he  told  of  meeting  old  Aunt  Caroline  one 
evening  striding  along  with  a  basket  on  her  head.  He  said, 
"Where  are  you  going,  Aunt  Caroline?"  And  she  re- 
plied: "Lor'  bless  yer,  Mister  Washin'ton,  I  dun  bin  where 
I's  er  goin'."  "And  so,"  he  concluded,  "some  of  the 
races  of  the  earth  have  dun  bin  where  dey  was  er  goin'!" 
but  fortunately  the  Negro  race  was  not  among  them. 

In  making  the  point  that,  in  spite  of  race  prejudice,  the 
handicaps  to  which  his  people  were  subjected  in  the  South 
were  after  all  superficial  and  did  not  interfere  with  their 
chance  to  work  and  earn  a  living,  he  told  the  experience  of 
an  old  Negro  who  was  accompanying  him  on  one  of  his 
Southern  educational  tours.  At  a  certain  city  they  were 
obliged  to  wait  several  hours  between  trains,  so  this  old 
man  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  stroll  about  and 
see  the  sights  of  the  place.  After  a  while  he  pulled  out  his 
30 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

watch  and  found  he  had  barely  time  to  get  back  to  the 
station  before  the  train  was  due  to  leave.  Accordingly  he 
rushed  to  a  hack  stand  and  called  out  to  the  first  driver  he 
came  to,  who  happened  to  be  a  white  man:  "Hurry  up  an' 
take  me  to  the  station,  I's  gotta  get  the  4:32  train!"  To 
which  the  white  hack  driver  replied:  "I  ain't  never  drove 
a  nigger  in  my  hack  yit  an'  I  ain't  goin'  ter  begin  now. 
You  can  git  a  nigger  driver  ter  take  ye  down!" 

To  this  the  old  colored  man  replied  with  perfect  good 
nature:  "All  right,  my  frien',  we  won't  have  no  misunder- 
standing or  trouble;  I'll  tell  you  how  we'll  settle  it:  you 
jest  hop  in  on  der  back  seat  an'  do  der  ridin'  and  I'll  set  in 
front  an'  do  der  drivinV  In  this  way  they  reached  the 
station  amicably  and  the  old  man  caught  his  train.  Like 
this  old  Negro,  Mr.  Washington  always  devoted  his 
energies  to  catching  the  train,  and  it  made  little  difference 
to  him  whether  he  sat  on  the  front  or  the  back  seat. 

A  few  months  later,  to  the  five  thousand  people  of  his 
own  race  in  the  Harlem  Casino  in  New  York  City,  he  de- 
scribed their  daily  lives,  their  problems,  perplexities,  and 
temptations  in  terms  as  homely,  as  picturesque,  and  as 
vivid  as  he  used  in  talking  to  the  Georgia  farmers.  He 
urged  them,  just  as  he  did  the  farmers,  to  stop  moving 
about  and  to  settle  down — "to  stop  staying  here  and  there 
and  everywhere  and  begin  to  live  somewhere."  He  urged 
them  to  leave  the  little  mechanical  job  of  window  washing, 
or  what  not,  and  go  into  business  for  themselves,  even  if 
they  could  only  afford  a  few  newspapers  or  peanuts  to  start 
with.     He  told  of  a  certain  New  York  street  where  he  had 

3i 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

found  all  the  people  on  one  side  of  a  row  of  push  carts  were 
selling  something,  while  all  the  people  on  the  other  side 
were  buying  something.  Those  that  were  selling  were 
white  people,  while  those  that  were  buying  were  colored 
people.  That,  he  said,  was  a  color  line  they  had  drawn 
themselves.  He  reminded  them  of  the  high  cost  of  living, 
and  by  way  of  example  he  commented  upon  the  expense 
of  having  to  buy  so  many  shoes.  He  said:  "Up  here  you 
not  only  have  to  have  good,  expensive  shoes,  but  you  have 
to  wear  them  all  the  time."  And  then  he  reminded  them 
how  back  in  the  country  down  South,  before  they  came  to 
the  city,  they  would  buy  a  pair  of  shoes  at  Christmas  and 
after  Christmas  put  them  away  in  the  "chist "  and  not  take 
them  out  again  until  "big  meeting  day,"  and  then  wear 
them  only  in  the  meeting  and  not  walking  to  and  from  the 
church.  And  as  he  concluded  with  the  words,  "Under 
those  conditions  shoes  last  a  long  time,"  people  all  over  the 
audience  were  chuckling  and  nudging  and  winking  at  one 
another  as  people  will  when  characteristic  incidents  in  their 
past  lives  are  graphically  recalled  to  them. 

Then  he  described  the  almost  innumerable  temptations 
to  spend  money  which  the  city  offers.  Some  of  the  store 
windows  are  so  enticing  that,  as  he  said,  "the  dollars  al- 
most jump  out  of  your  pockets  as  you  go  by  on  the  side- 
walk." "Then  you  men  working  for  rich  men  here  in  the 
city  smell  the  smoke  of  so  many  twenty-five-cent  cigars 
that  after  a  while  you  feel  as  though  you  must  smoke 
twenty-five-cent  cigars.  You  don't  stop  to  think  that 
when  the  grandfathers  of  those  very  men  first  came  from 
32 


o 


> 


as 


M 
G 

O 


a, 

3 
0 

Ui 

SO 
U 


a 
o 


a. 


o 


o 
3 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

the  country  a  hundred  years  ago  they  smoked  two-for-five 
cigars."  Then  he  told  of  a  family  he  had  found  living  on 
the  tenth  story  of  an  electric-lighted,  steam-heated  apart- 
ment house  with  elevator  service,  and  this  very  family  only 
two  years  before  was  living  in  a  two-room  cabin  in  the 
Yazoo  Valley  on  the  Mississippi  bottoms.  And  he  com- 
mented: "Now,  that  family's  in  danger.  No  people  can 
change  as  much  and  as  fast  as  that  without  great  danger!" 

Next  he  touched  on  the  high  rents  and  said:  "You 
mothers  know  that  sooner  or  later  you  have  to  take  in 
roomers  to  help  pay  that  rent,  and  after  a  while  you  take  in 
Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry,  or  anybody  who's  got  the  money  re- 
gardless of  who  or  what  they  are,  and  you  mothers  know 
the  danger  that  spells  for  your  daughters."  (At  this  point 
he  was  interrupted  by  a  chorus  of  "amens"  from  women 
all  over  the  great  hall.)  He  continued:  "Now,  you  take 
the  'old  man'  aside  an'  tell  him  straight,  you're  not  going 
to  have  any  more  roomers  hanging  round  your  house — 
that  he's  got  to  hustle  for  a  better  job  or  go  into  some  little 
business  for  himself,  or  move  out  into  some  little  cottage  in 
the  country,  or  do  something  to  get  rid  of  those  Tom,  Dick, 
and  Harry  roomers." 

In  short,  in  this  speech  Mr.  Washington  showed  that  he 
knew  just  as  intimately  the  lives  of  his  people  in  the  flats  of 
Greater  New  York  as  on  the  farms  of  southwestern 
Georgia. 

In  spite  of  his  grasp  of  details  Mr.  Washington  never 
became  so  immersed  in  them  as  to  lose  sight  of  his  ultimate 
goal,  and  conversely  he  never  became  so  blinded  by  the 

33 


BOOKER  T.   WASHINGTON 

vision  of  his  ultimate  goal  as  to  overlook  details.  The 
solution  of  the  so-called  Negro  problem  in  America,  he  felt, 
is  to  be  found  along  these  lines:  As  his  people  have  more 
and  more  opportunity  for  training  and  become  better  and 
better  trained  they  become  more  and  more  self-sufficient. 
tThey  are  developing  their  own  carpenters,  masons,  black- 
smiths, farmers,  merchants,  and  bankers  as  well  as  law- 
yers, teachers,  preachers,  and  physicians.  These  trained 
people  naturally,  for  the  most  part,  serve  their  own  race, 
and  to  them  the  members  of  the  race  naturally  turn  for 
the  service  that  each  is  equipped  to  render.-  As  they 
acquire  wealth,  education,  and  cultivation,  the  persons 
possessing  these  advantages  naturally  intermingle  socially 
and  build  up  a  society  from  which  the  rough,  ignorant,  and 
uncouth  of  their  own  race  are  as  inevitably  excluded  as  are 
such  persons  from  all  polite  social  intercourse  of  whatever 
people.  These  Negroes  of  education  and  cultivation  no 
more  desire  to  force  themselves  into  the  society  of  the 
other  race  than  do  any  persons  of  real  education  and 
cultivation  desire  to  go  where  they  are  not  wanted.  As 
the  race  increases  in  wealth  and  culture  it  becomes  more 
and  more  easy  and  natural  for  its  successful  members  to 
satisfy  their  social  desires  and  ambitions  in  their  own 
society.  Already  in  the  centres  of  Negro  prosperity  and 
culture  it  would  be  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  impossible  for 
a  white  man  to  be  received  into  the  best  Negro  society  as 
it  would  for  a  Negro  to  be  received  into  the  best  white 
society.  This  growing  independence  and  self-sufficiency 
in  the  trades,  the  professions,  and  social  intercourse  leads 

34 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

inevitably,  as  he  pointed  out,  to  a  form  of  natural  segrega- 
tion based  upon  economic  needs  and  social  preferences, 
and  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  nature,  which  is  a  very 
different  matter  from  the  artificial  and  arbitrary  segrega- 
tion forced  upon  unwilling  people  by  the  laws  of  men. 
Under  these  conditions  the  disputes  as  to  whether  the 
best  society  of  the  blacks  is  inferior  or  superior  to  the  best 
society  of  the  whites  becomes  as  academic  and  futile  as 
would  be  similar  contentions  as  to  whether  the  best  society 
of  Constantinople  is  inferior  or  superior  to  that  of  Boston. 

While  Negroes  are  more  and  more  drawing  apart  from 
the  whites  into  their  own  section  of  the  city,  town,  or 
county  they  nevertheless  find  it  a  source  of  strength  to  live 
near  the  whites  in  order  that  they  may  have  the  benefit  of 
their  aid  in  those  matters  in  which  the  older  and  stronger 
race  excels.  Nor  is  this  an  entirely  one-sided  advantage, 
as  there  are  not  a  few  matters  in  which  the  Negroes  have 
natural  advantages  over  the  whites  and  hence  may  render 
them  useful  service.  Thus  the  two  races,  socially  sep- 
arated but  economically  interdependent,  may  to  mutual 
advantage  live  side  by  side. 

Some  persons  claim  that  any  such  plan  of  race  adjust- 
ment, while  theoretically  plausible  and  ideally  desirable,  is 
nevertheless  practically  impossible.  They  contend  that 
no  so  radically  different  races  have  ever  lived  side  by  side 
in  harmony  and  each  aiding  the  other.  However  that  may 
be,  there  remains  the  fact  that  such  a  harmonious  and 
mutually  helpful  relationship  between  the  two  races  does 
already  exist  in  the  town  of  Tuskegee,  throughout  Macon 

35 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

County,  and  in  many  other  of  the  more  progressive  lo- 
calities throughout  the  South  to-day.  And  at  the  same 
time,  the  lynchings  and  riots  and  other  manifestations  of 
racial  conflict  are  continuously  if  slowly  growing  less  fre- 
quent. Whatever  may  be  the  relative  strength  of  the  two 
theories,  the  facts  are  lining  up  in  support  of  the  Booker 
Washington  prophecy  at  the  Atlanta  Exposition  when  he 
said:  "In  all  things  that  are  purely  social  we  can  be  as 
separate  as  the  fingers,  yet  one  as  the  hand  in  all  things 
essential  to  mutual  progress." 

During  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  Mr.  Washington 
came  more  and  more  to  be  regarded  as  the  representative 
and  spokesman  of  his  race,  and  was  invited  to  represent 
and  speak  for  them  at  such  national  and  international 
gatherings  as  the  annual  conventions  of  the  National 
Negro  Business  League,  of  which  he  was  the  president  and 
founder;  the  great  meeting  in  honor  of  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  held  in  Boston  in  1897;  the  Presbyterian  rally  for 
Home  Missions,  at  which  President  Grover  Cleveland 
presided;  the  International  Sunday-school  Convention 
held  in  Chicago  in  1914;  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Educational  Association  in  St.  Louis  in  1904;  the  Thanks- 
giving Peace  Jubilee  in  the  Chicago  Auditorium  at  the  close 
of  thewarwith  Spain  in  1898,  with  President  McKinley  and 
his  Cabinet  in  attendance;  the  Commencement  exercises 
at  Harvard  in  1896,  when  President  Eliot  conferred  upon 
him  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts;  the  International  Con- 
ference on  the  Negro,  held  at  Tuskegee  in  1912,  with  repre- 
sentatives present  from  Europe,  Africa,  the  West  Indies, 
36 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

and  South  America,  as  well  as  all  sections  of  the  United 
States.  Dartmouth  College  conferred  his  Doctorate  upon 
him  in  1901. 

At  Harvard  in  1896  President  Eliot,  with  these  words, 
conferred  upon  Mr.  Washington  the  first  honorary  degree 
ever  conferred  by  a  great  university  upon  an  American 
Negro:  "Teacher,  wise  helper  of  his  race;  good  servant  of 
God  and  country."  In  his  speech  delivered  at  the  Alumni 
Dinner  on  the  same  day  Mr.  Washington  brought  this 
message  to  Harvard:  "If  through  me,  an  humble  repre- 
sentative, seven  millions  of  my  people  in  the  South  might 
be  permitted  to  send  a  message  to  Harvard — Harvard  that 
offered  up  on  death's  altar  young  Shaw,  and  Russell,  and 
Lowell,  and  scores  of  others,  that  we  might  have  a  free  and 
united  country — that  message  would  be:  'Tell  them  that 
the  sacrifice  was  not  in  vain.  Tell  them  that  by  the  way 
of  the  shop,  the  field,  the  skilled  hand,  habits  of  thrift  and 
economy,  by  way  of  industrial  school  and  college,  we  are 
coming.  We  are  crawling  up,  working  up,  yea,  bursting 
up.  Often  through  oppression,  unjust  discrimination,  and 
prejudice,  but  through  them  all  we  are  coming  up,  and 
with  proper  habits,  intelligence,  and  property,  there  is  no 
power  on  earth  that  can  permanently  stay  our  progress!'  " 

The  next  year  at  the  great  meeting  in  honor  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man  held  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  which  con- 
cluded with  the  unveiling  of  the  monument  of  Robert 
Gould  Shaw,  Booker  Washington  in  concluding  his  ad- 
dress turned  to  the  one-armed  color  bearer  of  Colonel 
Shaw's  regiment  and  said:    "To  you,  to  the  scarred  and 

37 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

scattered  remnants  of  the  Fifty-fourth,  who  with  empty- 
sleeve  and  wanting  leg  have  honored  this  occasion  with 
your  presence — to  you,  your  commander  is  not  dead. 
Though  Boston  erected  no  monument,  and  history  re- 
corded no  story,  in  you  and  the  loyal  race  which  you  repre- 
sent Robert  Gould  Shaw  will  have  a  monument  which 
time  cannot  wear  away." 

In  his  speech  at  the  Peace  Jubilee  exercises  after  the  war 
with  Spain,  Mr.  Washington  said:  "When  you  have  gotten 
the  full  story  of  the  heroic  conduct  of  the  Negro  in  the 
Spanish-American  War — heard  it  from  the  lips  of  Northern 
soldiers  and  Southern  soldiers,  from  ex-abolitionist  and  ex- 
master — then  decide  within  yourselves  whether  a  race  that 
is  thus  willing  to  die  for  its  country  should  not  be  given  the 
highest  opportunity  to  live  for  its  country."  And  again  in 
the  same  speech,  after  rehearsing  the  successes  of  American 
arms,  he  said:  "We  have  succeeded  in  every  conflict,  ex- 
cept the  effort  to  conquer  ourselves  in  the  blotting  out  of 
racial  prejudices.  .  .  .  Until  we  thus  conquer  our- 
selves, I  make  no  empty  statement  when  I  say  that  we 
shall  have,  especially  in  the  Southern  part  of  our  country,  a 
cancer  gnawing  at  the  heart  of  the  Republic  that  shall  one 
day  prove  as  dangerous  as  an  attack  from  an  army  without 
or  within."  Note  this  as  the  language  of  a  man  on  a  great 
national  occasion  who  has  been  accused  of  a  time-serving 
acquiescence  in  the  injustices  which  his  race  suffers ! 

In  his  address  before  the  National  Educational  Associa- 
tion in  St.  Louis,  in  1904,  he  made  the  following  remarks 
which  are  typical  of  points  he  sought  to  emphasize  when 
38 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

addressing  audiences  of  white  people:  "Let  me  free  your 
minds,  if  I  can,  from  possible  fear  and  apprehension  in  two 
directions:  the  Negro  in  this  country  does  not  seek,  as  a 
race,  to  exercise  political  supremacy  over  the  white  man, 
nor  is  social  intermingling  with  any  race  considered  by  the 
Negro  to  be  one  of  the  essentials  to  his  progress.  You 
may  not  know  it,  but  my  people  are  as  proud  of  their 
racial  identity  as  you  are  of  yours,  and  in  the  degree  that 
they  become  intelligent,  racial  pride  increases.  I  was 
never  prouder  of  the  fact  that  I  am  classed  as  a  Negro  than 
I  am  to-day.  ...  I  can  point  you  to  groups  of  my 
people  in  nearly  every  part  of  our  country  that  in  intelli- 
gence and  high  and  unselfish  purpose  of  their  school  and 
church  life,  and  in  the  purity  and  sweetness  of  their  home 
life  and  social  intercourse,  will  compare  favorably  with  the 
races  of  the  earth.  You  can  never  lift  any  large  section  of 
people  by  continually  calling  attention  to  their  weak 
points.  A  race,  like  a  child  in  school,  needs  encourage- 
ment as  well  as  chastisement." 

In  his  address  before  the  annual  session  of  1914  of  the 
National  Negro  Business  League  at  Muskogee,  Oklahoma, 
Mr.  Washington  made  the  following  remarks  which  are 
typical  of  his  points  of  chief  emphasis  in  addressing  his  own 
people:  "Let  your  success  thoroughly  eclipse  your  short- 
comings. We  must  give  the  world  so  much  to  think  and  talk 
about  that  relates  to  our  constructive  work  in  the  direction 
of  progress  that  people  will  forget  and  overlook  our  failures 
and  shortcomings.  .  .  .  One  big,  definite  fact  in  the  di- 
rection of  achievement  and  construction  will  go  farther  in 

39 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 


securing  rights  and  removing  prejudice  than  many  printed 
pages  of  defense  and  explanation.  .  .  .  Let  us  in  the 
future  spend  less  time  talking  about  the  part  of  the  city 
that  we  cannot  live  in,  and  more  time  in  making  that 
part  of  the  city  that  we  can  live  in  beautiful  and  attrac- 
tive. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  kind  of  criticism  to  which  Mr. 
Washington  was  subjected  that  a  certain  element  of  the 
Negro  press  violently  denounced  this  comment  as  an  in- 
direct endorsement  of  the  legal  segregation  of  Negroes. 
Probably  the  last  article  written  by  Mr.  Washington  for 
any  publication  was  the  one  published  posthumously  by 
the  New  Republic,  New  York  City,  December  4,  191 5,  en- 
titled, "My  View  of  Segregation  Laws,"  in  which  he 
stated  in  no  uncertain  terms  his  views  on  the  segregation 
laws  which  were  being  passed  in  the  South.  In  concluding 
his  article,  he  said: 

"Summarizing  the  matter  in  the  large,  segregation  is  ill- 
advised  because: 

1.  It  is  unjust. 

2.  It  invites  other  unjust  measures. 

3.  It  will  not  be  productive  of  good,  because  practically 
every  thoughtful  Negro  resents  its  injustice  and  doubts  its 
sincerity.  Any  race  adjustment  based  on  injustice  finally 
defeats  itself.  The  Civil  War  is  the  best  illustration  of 
what  results  where  it  is  attempted  to  make  wrong  right  or 
seem  to  be  right. 

4.  It  is  unnecessary. 

5.  It  is  inconsistent.  The  Negro  is  segregated  from  his 
40 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

white  neighbor,  but  white  business  men  are  not  prevented 
from  doing  business  in  Negro  neighborhoods. 

6.  There  has  been  no  case  of  segregation  of  Negroes  in 
the  United  States  that  has  not  widened  the  breach  between 
the  two  races.  Wherever  a  form  of  segregation  exists  it 
will  be  found  that  it  has  been  administered  in  such  a  way  as 
to  embitter  the  Negro  and  harm  more  or  less  the  moral 
fibre  of  the  white  man.  That  the  Negro  does  not  express 
this  constant  sense  of  wrong  is  no  proof  that  he  does  not 
feel  it. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  reasons  given  above,  if  care- 
fully considered,  should  serve  to  prevent  further  passage 
of  such  segregation  ordinances  as  have  been  adopted  in 
Norfolk,  Richmond,  Louisville,  Baltimore,  and  one  or  two 
cities  in  South  Carolina. 

"Finally,  as  I  have  said  in  another  place,  as  white  and 
black  learn  daily  to  adjust,  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  fair 
play,  these  interests  which  are  individual  and  racial,  and 
to  see  and  feel  the  importance  of  those  fundamental  in- 
terests which  are  common,  so  will  both  races  grow  and 
prosper.  In  the  long  run,  no  individual  and  no  race  can 
succeed  which  sets  itself  at  war  against  the  common  good; 
for  in  the  gain  or  loss  of  one  race  all  the  rest  have'  equal 
claim." 

In  concluding  his  Muskogee  speech  he  said:  "If  there 
are  those  who  are  inclined  to  be  discouraged  concerning 
racial  conditions  in  this  country  we  have  but  to  turn  our 
minds  in  the  direction  of  the  deplorable  conditions  in 
Europe,  growing  largely  out  of  racial  bitterness  and  fric- 

41 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

tion.  When  we  contrast  what  has  taken  place  there  with 
the  peaceful  manner  in  which  black  people  and  white 
people  are  living  together  in  this  country,  notwithstanding 
now  and  then  there  are  evidences  of  injustice  and  friction, 
which  should  always  be  condemned,  we  have  the  greatest 
cause  for  thanksgiving.  Perhaps  nowhere  else  in  the 
world  can  be  found  so  many  white  people  living  side  by 
side  with  so  many  of  dark  skin  in  so  much  of  peace  and 
harmony  as  in  the  United  States." 

This  concluding  observation  was  particularly  character- 
istic of  him.  Somewhere,  or  somehow,  he  always  turned 
to  account  all  significant  events  for  weal  or  woe  from  the 
most  trivial  personal  happenings  to  the  titanic  world  war. 

Like  all  great  leaders,  Booker  Washington  did  the  bulk  of 
his  work  quietly  in  his  own  office  and  not  on  dramatic 
historic  occasions  before  great  audiences.  He  received 
every  day,  for  instance,  a  huge  and  varied  mail  which  re- 
quired not  only  industry  to  handle,  but  much  judgment, 
patience,  and  tact  to  dispose  of  wisely  and  adequately. 
We  will  here  mention  and  quote  from  a  sheaf  of  letters 
taken  at  random  from  his  files  which  partially  illustrate  the 
range  of  his  interests  and  the  variety  of  the  calls  which 
were  constantly  made  upon  him. 

A  railroad  official  in  Colorado  asked  his  opinion  on  the 
question  of  separate  schools  for  white  and  black  children 
apropos  of  a  movement  to  amend  the  State  constitution  so 
as  to  make  possible  such  separate  schools.  In  his  reply 
Mr.  Washington  said:  "As  a  rule,  colored  people  in  the 
Northern  States  are  very  much  opposed  to  any  plans  for 
42 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

separate  schools,  and  I  think  their  feelings  in  the  matter 
deserve  consideration.  The  real  objection  to  separate 
schools,  from  their  point  of  view,  is  that  they  do  not  like  to 
feel  that  they  are  compelled  to  go  to  one  school  rather  than 
the  other.  It  seems  as  if  it  was  taking  away  part  of  their 
freedom.  This  feeling  is  likely  to  be  all  the  stronger 
where  the  matter  is  made  a  subject  of  public  agitation. 
On  the  other  hand,  my  experience  is  that  if  this  matter  is 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  school  officials  it  usually  settles 
itself.  As  the  colored  people  usually  live  pretty  closely 
together,  there  will  naturally  be  schools  in  which  colored 
students  are  in  the  majority.  In  that  case,  the  process  of 
separation  takes  place  naturally  and  without  the  necessity 
of  changing  the  constitution.  If  you  make  it  a  con- 
stitutional question,  the  colored  people  are  going  to  be  op- 
posed to  it.  If  you  leave  it  simply  an  administrative 
question,  which  it  really  is,  the  matter  will  very  likely  set- 
tle itself." 

We  next  find  a  courteous  reply  to  the  letter  of  some  poor 
crank  who  wanted  to  secure  his  backing  for  a  preparation 
which  he  had  concocted  for  taking  the  curl  out  of  Negroes' 
hair.  Then  comes  a  letter  to  a  man  who  wants  to  know 
whether  it  is  true  that  the  Negro  race  is  dying  out.  To 
him  Mr.  Washington  quoted  the  United  States  census 
figures  for  1910,  which  indicate  an  increase  of  HyV  Per 
cent,  in  the  Negro  population  for  the  decade. 

Next,  we  come  upon  a  letter  written  to  a  man  who  is 
interested  in  an  effort  of  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society  to 
raise  a  half  a  million  dollars  for  Negro  schools  in  the  South. 

43 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Since  this  letter  so  well  describes  an  important  phase  of 
Booker  Washington's  leadership  we  give  it  almost  in  full. 
It  was  written  in  1913  and  runs  thus: 

"I  think  the  most  interesting  work  that  Tuskegee  has 
done  in  recent  years  is  its  work  in  rural  schools  in  the 
country  surrounding  the  Institute.  During  the  last  five 
or  six  years  forty-seven  school  buildings  have  been  erected 
in  Macon  County  by  colored  people  themselves.  At  the 
same  time  the  school  term  has  been  lengthened  in  every 
part  of  the  county  from  five  to  eight  months.  This  work 
has  been  done  under  the  direction  of  a  supervising  teacher 
working  in  connection  with  the  extension  department  of 
the  Institute. 

"Among  other  things  that  have  been  attempted  to  en- 
courage the  people  to  improve  their  schools  has  been  a 
model  country  school  started  in  a  community  called 
Rising  Star,  a  few  miles  from  the  Institute.  The  school  at 
Rising  Star  is  an  example  of  the  rural  school  that  Tuskegee 
is  seeking  to  promote.  It  consists  of  a  five-room  frame 
house  in  which  the  teachers — a  Tuskegee  graduate  and  his 
wife — not  only  teach,  but  live.  All  the  rooms  are  used  by 
the  school  children.  In  the  kitchen  they  are  taught  to 
cook,  in  the  dining-room  to  serve  a  meal,  in  the  bedroom  to 
make  the  beds.  In  the  garden  they  are  taught  how  to  raise 
vegetables,  poultry,  pigs,  and  cows.  They  recite  in  the 
sitting-room  or  on  the  veranda,  and  their  lessons  all  deal 
with  matters  of  their  own  every-day  life.  .  .  .  In- 
stead of  figuring  how  long  it  will  take  an  express  train  to 
reach  the  moon  if  it  travelled  at  the  rate  of  forty  miles  an 

44 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

hour,  the  pupils  figure  out  how  much  corn  can  be  raised  on 
neighbor  Smith's  patch  of  land  and  how  much  farmer 
Jones'  pig  will  bring  when  slaughtered. 

"The  pupils  learn  neatness  and  cleanliness  by  living  in  a 
decent  home  during  their  school  hours.  They  carry  the 
lesson  home,  and  the  result  is  seen  in  cleaner  and  better 
farmhouses.  The  model  school  has  become  the  pattern  on 
which  the  farmers  and  their  wives  are  improving  their 
homes.     ..." 

Then  comes  a  letter  from  a  poor  woman  who  wants  him 
in  the  course  of  his  travels  to  look  up  her  husband  who 
abandoned  her  some  years  before.  For  purposes  of  identi- 
fication she  says:  "This  is  the  hith  of  him  5-6  light  eyes 
dark  hair  unwave  shave  and  a  Suprano  Voice  his  age  58 
his  name  Steve.  ..."  Even  though  Mr.  Washing- 
ton did  not  agree  to  spend  his  spare  time  looking  for  a  dis- 
loyal husband  with  a  soprano  voice,  he  sent  the  poor 
woman  a  kind  reply  and  suggested  some  means  of  tracing 
her  recreant  spouse. 

We  come  next  upon  a  long  letter  written  to  a  man  who 
wishes  to  quote  for  publication  in  a  magazine  Booker 
Washington's  opinion  on  the  relation  between  crime  and 
education.  In  the  concluding  paragraphs  of  his  reply  Mr. 
Washington  says:  "In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  crimes 
which  serve  to  unite  and  give  an  excuse  for  mob  violence 
are  committed  by  men  who  are  without  property,  without 
homes,  and  without  education  except  what  they  have 
picked  up  in  the  city  slums,  in  prisons,  or  on  the  chain 
gang.     The  South  is  spending  too  much  money  in  giving 

45 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

the  Negro  this  kind  of  education  that  makes  criminals  and 
not  enough  on  the  kind  of  schools  that  turn  out  farmers, 
carpenters,  and  blacksmiths.  Other  things  being  equal, 
it  is  true  not  only  in  America,  in  the  South,  but  throughout 
the  world,  that  there  is  the  least  crime  where  there  is  the 
most  education.  This  is  true  of  the  South  and  of  the 
Negro,  just  the  same  as  it  is  true  of  every  other  race.  Par- 
ticularly is  it  true  that  the  individuals  who  commit  crimes 
of  violence  and  crimes  that  are  due  to  lack  of  self-control 
are  individuals  who  are,  for  the  most  part,  ignorant.  The 
decrease  in  lynching  in  the  Southern  States  is  an  index  of 
the  steady  growth  of  the  South  in  wealth,  in  industry,  in 
education,  and  in  individual  liberty." 

Then  comes  a  letter  to  an  individual  who  desires  to  know 
what  proportion  of  the  American  Negroes  can  read  and 
write  now,  and  what  proportion  could  at  the  time  of  the 
Civil  War.  The  reply  again  quotes  the  1910  census  to  the 
effect  that  69.5  per  cent,  can  now  read  and  write  as  com- 
pared with  only  3  per  cent,  at  the  close  of  the  war.  The 
letter  also  points  out  that  the  rate  of  illiteracy  among 
American  Negroes  is  now  lower  than  the  rate  for  all  the 
peoples  of  Russia,  Portugal,  Brazil,  and  Venezuela,  and  al- 
most as  low  as  that  of  Spain. 

There  follows  a  sheaf  of  correspondence  in  which  Mr. 
Washington  agreed  to  speak  at  the  unveiling  of  a  tablet  in 
Auburn,  New  York,  to  the  memory  of  "Aunt  Harriet" 
Tubman  Davis,  the  black  woman,  squat  of  stature  and 
seamed  of  face,  who  piloted  three  or  four  hundred  slaves 
from  the  land  of  bondage  to  the  land  of  freedom.  While 
46 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

there  he  also  agreed  to  speak  at  Auburn  prison  in  response 
to  the  special  request  of  some  of  the  prisoners. 

Then  we  find  a  courteous  but  firmly  negative  reply  to  a 
long-winded  bore  who  writes  a  six-page  letter  urging  Mr. 
Washington  to  secure  the  acceptance  by  the  Negro  race  of 
a  flag  which  he  has  designed  as  their  racial  flag. 

After  this  follows  a  group  of  letters  which  passed  between 
him  and  the  late  Edgar  Gardiner  Murphy,  author  of  "The 
Present  South,"  "The  Basis  of  Ascendency,"  and  other 
important  books.  In  one  of  these  letters  Mr.  Washington 
agrees,  as  requested,  to  read  the  proofs  of  "The  Basis  of 
Ascendency,"  and  in  another  he  thus  characteristically 
comments  upon  Mr.  Murphy's  fears  that  a  pessimistic 
book  on  the  status  of  the  Negro  written  by  a  supposed 
authority  (a  colored  man)  would  do  wide-reaching  harm: 
"Of  course  among  a  certain  element  it  will  have  an  in- 
fluence for  harm,  but  human  nature,  as  I  observe  it,  is  so 
constructed  that  it  does  not  take  kindly  to  a  description  of 
a  failure.  It  is  hard  to  get  up  enthusiasm  in  connection 
with  a  funeral  procession.  No  man,  in  my  opinion,  could 
write  a  history  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  that  would  be 
read  generally  because  it  failed.     I   am  not  saying,  of 

course,  that  the  Negro  race  is   a  failure.     Mr.  

writes  largely  from  that  point  of  view,  hence  there  is  no 
rallying  point  for  the  general  reader." 

In  reply  to  a  Western  university  professor  who  had  asked 
his  opinion  of  amalgamation  as  a  solution  of  the  race 
problem  he  wrote:  "I  have  never  looked  upon  amalgama- 
tion as  offering  a  solution  of  the  so-called  race  problem,  and 

47 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

I  know  very  few  Negroes  who  favor  it  or  even  think  of  it, 
for  that  matter.  What  those  whom  I  have  heard  discuss 
the  matter  do  object  to  are  laws  which  enable  the  father  to 
escape  his  responsibility,  or  prevent  him  from  accepting 
and  exercising  it,  when  he  has  children  by  colored  women. 
I  think  this  answers  your  question,  but  since  there  seems 
to  be  some  misunderstanding  as  to  how  colored  people  feel 
about  this  subject,  I  might  say  in  explanation  of  what  I 
have  already  said:  The  Negroes  in  America  are,  as  you 
know,  a  mixed  race.  If  that  is  an  advantage  we  have  it;  if 
it  is  a  disadvantage,  it  is  still  ours,  and  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  product  of  every  sort  of  racial  mixture  between  the 
black  man  and  any  other  race  is  always  a  Negro  and  never 
a  white  man,  Indian,  or  any  other  sort  of  man. 

"The  Negro  in  America  is  defined  by  the  census  as  a 
person  who  is  classed  as  such  in  the  community  in  which  he 
or  she  resides.  In  other  words,  the  Negro  in  this  country 
is  not  so  much  of  a  particular  color  or  particular  racial 
stock  as  one  who  shares  a  particular  condition.  It  is  the 
fact  that  they  all  share  in  this  condition  which  creates  a 
cause  of  common  sympathy  and  binds  the  members  of  the 
race  together  in  spite  of  all  differences." 

To  an  embarrassing  question  put  by  the  society  editor 
of  some  paper  Mr.  Washington  replied  by  merely  telling  a 
funny  story  the  application  of  which  to  the  impertinent 
inquiry  was  obvious.  In  another  letter  he  summed  up  his 
opinion  of  the  much-mooted  question  of  the  franchise  in 
these  two  sentences:  "There  is  no  reason  why  every  Negro 
who  is  not  fitted  to  vote  should  not  be  disfranchised.  At 
48 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

the  same  time,  there  is  no  good  reason  why  every  white  man 
who  is  not  fitted  to  vote  should  not  also  be  disfranchised." 

From  the  foregoing  correspondence  it  will  be  seen  that 
one  of  Booker  Washington's  many  roles  was  to  act  as  a 
kind  of  plenipotentiary  and  interpreter  between  his  people 
and  the  dominant  race.  For  this  part  he  was  peculiarly 
fitted  by  his  thorough  understanding  of  and  sympathy  for 
each  race. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  immediately  after  taking  the  oath 
of  office  as  President  of  the  United  States,  in  Buffalo  after 
the  death  of  President  McKinley,  wrote  Mr.  Washington 
the  following  note : 

[Copy] 

Executive  Mansion 

Washington 

Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
Sept.  14,  1 90 1. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Washington: 

I  write  you  at  once  to  say  that  to  my  deep  regret  my 
visit  South  must  now  be  given  up. 

When  are  you  coming  North  ?  I  must  see  you  as  soon  as 
possible.  I  want  to  talk  over  the  question  of  possible  ap- 
pointments in  the  South  exactly  on  the  lines  of  our  last 
conversation  together. 

I  hope  that  my  visit  to  Tuskegee  is  merely  deferred  for  a 
short  season. 

Faithfully  yours, 

(Signed)  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Booker  T.  Washington,  Esq., 
Tuskegee,  Alabama. 

49 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

This  deferred  visit  finally  took  place  in  1905,  not  long 
after  Colonel  Roosevelt's  triumphant  election  to  the 
Presidency,  when  he  came  to  Tuskegee  accompanied  by 
his  secretary,  William  Loeb,  Jr.;  Federal  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  John  McThenny;  Collector  of  Revenue 
for  the  Birmingham  District,  J.  O.  Thompson;  Judge 
Thomas  G.  Jones  of  Montgomery,  and  a  fellow  Rough 
Rider  by  the  name  of  Greeneway. 

In  response  to  the  above  note  Mr.  Washington  went 
to  the  White  House  and  discussed  with  the  President 
"possible  future  appointments  in  the  South  "  along  the  lines 
agreed  upon  between  them  in  a  conference  which  they  had 
had  at  a  time  when  it  had  seemed  possible  that  Mr.  Roose- 
velt might  be  given  the  Republican  Presidential  nomina- 
tion of  1900,  that  is,  while  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  Governor  of 
New  York  and  a  tentative  candidate  for  the  nomination. 

Upon  his  return  to  Tuskegee  after  this  talk  with  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt,  Mr.  Washington  found  that  the  judge- 
ship for  the  Southern  District  of  Alabama  had  just  be- 
come vacant  through  the  death  of  the  incumbent,  Judge 
Bruce,  Here  was  an  opportunity  for  the  President  to 
put  into  practice  in  striking  fashion  the  policy  they  had 
discussed — namely,  to  appoint  to  Federal  posts  in  the 
Southern  States  the  best  men  available  and  to  reward 
and  recognize  conspicuous  merit  among  Southern  Demo- 
crats and  Southern  Negroes  as  well  as  among  Southern 
white  Republicans.  Being  unable  at  the  moment  to 
return  to  Washington,  he  sent  his  secretary,  Emmett 
J.  Scott,  with  the  following  letter: 

5° 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

Tuskegee,  Alabama, 
October  2,  190 1. 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Washington,  D.  C. 

My  Dear  Mr.  President:  I  send  you  the  following 
information  through  my  secretary,  Mr.  Emmett  J.  Scott, 
whom  you  can  trust  implicitly. 

Judge  Bruce,  the  Judge  of  the  Middle  District  of 
Alabama,  died  yesterday.  There  is  going  to  be  a  very 
hard  scramble  for  his  place.  I  saw  ex-governor  T.  G. 
Jones  yesterday,  as  I  promised,  and  he  is  willing  to  accept 
the  judgeship  of  the  Middle  District  of  Alabama.  I  am 
more  convinced  now  than  ever  that  he  is  the  proper  man 
for  the  place.  He  has  until  recently  been  president  of 
the  Alabama  State  Bar  Association.  He  is  a  Gold  Demo- 
crat, and  is  a  clean,  pure  man  in  every  respect.  He  stood 
up  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  elsewhere  for  a 
fair  election  law,  opposed  lynching,  and  he  has  been  out- 
spoken for  the  education  of  both  races.  He  is  head  and 
shoulders  above  any  of  the  other  persons  who  I  think  will 
apply  for  the  position. 

Yours  truly, 

Booker  T.  Washington. 

P.  S. — I  do  not  believe  in  all  the  South  you  could  select 
a  better  man  through  whom  to  emphasize  your  idea  of  the 
character  of  a  man  to  hold  office  than  you  can  do  through 
ex-governor  Jones. 

[Copy] 

Mr.  Scott  described  what  occurred  on  his  delivery  of 
this  letter  in  the  following  report  to  his  chief: 

Washington,  D.  C, 

October  4,  1901. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Washington:    I  called  to  see  the  Presi- 
dent this  morning.     I  found  him  all  cordiality  and  brim- 
Si 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

ming  over  with  good  will  for  you.  That  pleased  me  much! 
He  had  received  the  telegram  and  had  made  an  appoint- 
ment for  me.  He  read  your  letter,  inquired  if  I  knew  the 
contents,  and  then  launched  into  a  discussion  of  it. 
Wanted  to  know  if  Governor  Jones  supported  Bryan  in 
either  campaign.  I  told  him  no.  He  wanted  to  know  how 
I  knew.  I  told  him  of  the  letter  wherein  he  (Governor 
Jones)  stated  to  you  that  he  was  without  political  am- 
bition because  he  had  opposed  Bryan,  etc.  Well,  he  said 
he  wanted  to  hear  from  you  direct  as  to  whether  he  had 
or  not,  and  asked  me  to  write  you  to  find  out.  I  am  now 
awaiting  that  wire  so  as  to  call  again  on  him.  As  soon 
as  I  see  him  again  I  will  wire  you  and  write  you  as  to  what 
he  says.  He  is  going  to  appoint  Governor  Jones.  That 
was  made  apparent.  While  I  was  waiting  to  see  him 
Senator  Chandler  with  the  Spanish  Claims  Commission 
called.  They  saw  him  first.  I  heard  the  talk,  however, 
which  was  mostly  felicitation.  Incidentally,  however, 
Senator  Chandler  said  that  the  Commission  was  afraid 
it  would  lose  one  of  its  members  because  of  the  vacancy 
in  Alabama,  referring  to  Hon.  W.  L.  Chambers,  who  was 
present  and  who  is  a  member  of  the  Commission.  The 
President  laughed  heartily.  Said  the  Senator  always 
sprung  recommendations  unexpectedly,  and  so  forth  and 
so  forth.  He  did  not  inquire  as  to  any  of  the  others — 
the  applicants — seemed  interested  only  to  find  out  about 
Governor  Jones.  .  .  .  There  were  many  correspon- 
dents there  at  the  door,  but  I  told  them  I  was  passing 
through  to  Buffalo,  but  had  stopped  over  to  invite  the 
President  to  include  Tuskegee  in  his  itinerary  when  he 
goes  South  again.  .  .  .  Will  write  again  when  I  see 
the  President  again. 

Yours  sincerely, 
(Signed)  Emmett  J.  Scott. 

52 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

As  soon  as  he  had  received  Dr.  Washington's  telegram 
in  reply,  Mr.  Scott  went  again  to  the  White  House  and 
wrote  thus  of  his  second  call : 

[Copy] 

Washington,  D.  C, 
October  5,  1901. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Washington  :  You  have  my  telegram  of 
to-day.  I  sent  it  as  soon  as  I  had  seen  the  President.  I 
had  a  three-hour  wait  to  see  him  and  it  was  tiresome,  but 
I  "camped  with  them."  When  admitted  to  the  general 
reception  room  the  President  met  me  and  was  cordial 
and  asked  me  to  wait  awhile,  till  he  could  dismiss  two 
delegations,  then  he  invited  me  into  the  office,  or  cabinet 
room,  and  read  very  carefully  the  telegram  received  from 
you  last  night — Friday  night.  His  face  was  a  study. 
He  was  greatly  surprised  to  learn  that  the  Governor 
voted  for  Bryan,  and  walked  about  considerably.  At 
last  he  said,  "Well,  I  guess  I'll  have  to  appoint  him,  but 
I  am  awfully  sorry  he  voted  for  Bryan."  He  then  asked 
me  who  Dr.  Crum*  is  and  I  told  him  that  he  was  a  clean 
representative  character,  and  that  he  was  favorably  con- 
sidered by  Harrison  for  the  Charleston  postmastership, 
etc.  He  did  not  know  him  and  asked  me  what  place 
was  referred  to.  You  had  not  discussed  it  with  me,  but 
I  told  him  you  most  likely  referred  to  the  place  made 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Webster.  He  then  called  Mr. 
Cortelyou,  Secretary,  into  the  office  and  asked  him  if  he 
knew  Crum.     He  said  he  didn't  but  that  he  had  heard  of 

*This  refers  to  a  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Washington  in  his  telegram  recom- 
mending the  appointment  of  Dr.  W.  D.  Crum,  a  colored  physician,  to  a  South 
Carolina  vacancy,  so  that  the  President  could  thereby  announce  at  the  same 
time  the  appointment  of  a  first-grade  Southern  white  Democrat  and  a  first- 
class  colored  man. 

53 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

him  and  always  favorably.  The  President  then  asked 
Cortelyou  what  place  a  man  named  B.  was  being  con- 
sidered for,  and  he  said  the  place  made  vacant  by  Web- 
ster's death.  He  then  turned  to  me  and  said  that  he 
was  sorry,  that  he  would  certainly  have  considered  the 
matter  if  he  had  had  your  word  earlier.  He  asked  me 
to  tell  you  that  if  you  wish  Dr.  Crum  considered  for  any 
other  place  that  he  will  be  glad  to  have  you  communicate 
with  him.  I  then  asked  him  what  I  should  tell  you  in 
the  Governor  Jones'  matter,  and  he  said:  "Tell  Mr. 
Washington  without  using  my  name  that  party  will 
most  likely  be  appointed — in  fact  I  will  appoint  him — 
only  don't  make  it  that  strong  by  wire."  So  I  consider 
the  matter  closed. 

The  colored  brethren  here  are  scared.  They  don't 
know  what  to  expect,  and  the  word  has  passed,  they  say, 
that  you  are  the  "Warwick"  so  far  as  they  are  concerned. 
I  hope  to  find  you  well  in  Chicago. 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)     Emmett  J.  Scott. 

This  precedent-breaking  appointment  of  a  Southern 
Democrat  by  a  Republican  President,  made  primarily 
on  the  recommendation  of  Booker  Washington  and 
Grover  Cleveland,  was  acclaimed  with  enthusiastic 
approval  by  all  Democrats  everywhere,  and  in  fact 
there  was  no  dissenting  voice  except  from  the  office- 
holding  Southern  Republicans  who  naturally  resented 
this  encroachment  upon  what  they  regarded  as  their 
patronage  rights.  At  first  appreciation  was  almost 
universal  of  the  efforts  of  the  Negro  leader  in  helping  a 
Republican  President  to  make  this  far-reaching  change  in 

54 


LEADER  OF  HIS  RACE 

the  Federal  officeholding  traditions  of  the  South.  Soon, 
however,  some  Southern  newspapers  began  to  question 
the  wisdom  of  allowing  a  Negro  to  have  even  an  advisory 
voice  in  political  matters  notwithstanding  his  advice  had 
in  this  instance  been  so  acceptable  to  the  South.  This 
criticism  grew  so  insistent  that  Judge  Jones  found  himself  in 
an  uncomfortable  position  because  his  appointment  had 
been  made,  in  large  part,  on  the  recommendation  of  a  Negro. 
He  tried  to  soften  the  situation  by  giving  out  a  statement 
to  the  effect  that  his  endorsement  by  representative  white 
men  would  probably  have  assured  his  appointment  even 
without  the  assistance  of  Booker  Washington.  Later, 
however,  the  Judge  expressed  to  Mr.  Scott  privately, 
after  listening  with  deep  interest  to  the  recital  of  all  the 
incidents  connected  with  his  appointment,  his  apprecia- 
tion of  what  Booker  Washington  had  done  for  him. 

Aside  from  this  appointment,  Booker  Washington  had 
a  voice  in  many  others,  including  those  of  Gen.  R.  D. 
Johnson  as  Receiver  of  Public  Moneys  at  Birmingham, 
Colonel  Thomas  R.  Roulhac  as  United  States  District 
Judge,  and  Judge  Osceola  Kyle  of  Alabama  as  United 
States  District  Attorney  in  the  Panama  Canal  Zone. 
During  the  administrations  of  both  Presidents  Roosevelt 
and  Taft  hardly  an  office  of  consequence  was  conferred 
upon  a  Negro  without  first  consulting  Mr.  Washington. 
He  did  not  strive  through  his  influence  with  Presidents 
Roosevelt  and  Taft  to  increase  the  number  of  Negro 
appointees,  but  rather  to  raise  the  personnel  of  Negro 
officeholders.     During  the  period  when  his  advice  was 

SS 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

most  constantly  sought  at  the  White  House,  Charles 
W.  Anderson  was  appointed  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue 
for~the  Second  District  of  New  York  City;  J.  C.  Napier 
of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  became  Register  of  the  Treasury; 
William  H.  Lewis  of  Boston  was  appointed  successively 
Assistant  United  States  District  Attorney  and  Assistant 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States;  Robert  H.  Terrell 
was  given  a  Municipal  Judgeship  of. the  District  of  Colum- 
bia; Whitefield  McKinlay  was  made  Collector  of  the  Port 
for  the  Georgetown  District,  District  of  Columbia;  Dr.  W. 
D.  Crum  was  appointed  Collector  of  Customs  for  the  Port 
of  Charleston,  S.  C;  Ralph  W.  Tyler,  Auditor  for  the  Navy 
Department  at  Washington,  D.  C;  James  A.  Cobb,  Special 
Assistant  U.  S.  Attorney  in  charge  of  the  enforcement 
of  the  Pure  Food  Law  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
Charles  A.  Cottrell,  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  for 
the  District  of  Hawaii  at  Honolulu.  In  all  these  notably 
excellent  appointments  Mr.  Washington  had  a  voice. 

In  1903,  in  commenting  on  a  speech  of  Mr.  Washing- 
ton's in  which  he  had  emphasized  the  importance  of 
quality  rather  than  quantity  in  Negro  appointments,  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  wrote  him  as  follows : 

My  Dear  Mr.  Washington  :  That  is  excellent ;  and  you 
have  put  epigrammatically  just  what  I  am  doing — that  is, 
though  I  have  rather  reduced  the  quantity  I  have  done 
my  best  to  raise  the  quality  of  the  Negro  appointments. 
With  high  regard. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

56 


CHAPTER  THREE 

WASHINGTON:    THE    EDUCATOR 

THE  Tuskegee  Commencement  exercises  dramatize  edu- 
cation. They  enable  plain  men  and  women  to  visual- 
ize in  the  concrete  that  vague  word  which  means  so 
little  to  them  in  the  abstract.  More  properly  they 
'dramatize  the  identity  between  real  education  and 
actual  life.  On  the  platform  before  the  audience  is  a 
miniature  engine  to  which  steam  has  been  piped,  a  minia- 
Iture  frame  house  in  course  of  construction,  and  a  piece 
of  brick  wall  in  process  of  erection.  A  young  man  in  jump- 
ers comes  onto  the  platform,  starts  the  engine  and  blows 
the  whistle,  whereupon  young  men  and  women  come  hur- 
rying from  all  directions,  and  each  turns  to  his  or  her  ap- 
pointed task.  A  young  carpenter  completes  the  little 
house,  a  young  mason  finishes  the  laying  of  the  brick  wall, 
a  young  farmer  leads  forth  a  cow  and  milks  her  in  full 
view  of  the  audience,  a  sturdy  blacksmith  shoes  a  horse, 
and  after  this  patient,  educative  animal  has  been  shod  he 
is  turned  over  to  a  representative  of  the  veterinary  divi- 
sion to  have  his  teeth  filed.  At  the  same  time  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  platform  one  of  the  girl  students  is  hav- 
ing a  dress  fitted  by  one  of  her  classmates  who  is  a  dress- 
maker.    She  at  length  walks  proudly  from  the  platform 

57 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

in  her  completed  new  gown,  while  the  young  dressmaker 
looks  anxiously  after  her  to  make  sure  that  it  "hangs  right 
behind."  Other  girls  are  doing  washing  and  ironing  with 
the  drudgery  removed  in  accordance  with  advanced  Tus- 
kegee  methods.  Still  others  are  hard  at  work  on  hats, 
mats,  and  dresses,  while  boys  from  the  tailoring  depart- 
ment sit  crosslegged  working  on  suits  and  uniforms.  In 
the  background  are  arranged  the  finest  specimens  which 
scientific  agriculture  has  produced  on  the  farm  and  me- 
chanical skill  has  turned  out  in  the  shops.  The  pumpkin, 
potatoes,  corn,  cotton,  and  other  agricultural  products 
predominate,  because  agriculture  is  the  chief  industry 
at  Tuskegee  just  as  it  is  among  the  Negro  people  of  the 
South. 
^/  This  form  of  commencement  exercise  is  one  of  Booker 
Washington's  contributions  to  education  which  has  been 
widely  copied  by  schools  for  whites  as  well  as  blacks. 
That  it  appeals  to  his  own  people  is  eloquently  attested  by 
the  people  themselves  who  come  in  ever-greater  numbers 
as  the  commencement  days  recur.  At  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  of  this  great  day  vehicles  of  every  description, 
each  loaded  to  capacity  with  men,  women,  and  children, 
begin  to  roll  in  in  an  unbroken  line  which  sometimes  ex- 
tends along  the  road  for  three  miles.  Some  of  the  teachers 
at  times  objected  to  turning  a  large  area  of  the  Insti- 
tute grounds  into  a  hitching-post  station  for  the  horses 
and  mules  of  this  great  multitude,  but  to  all  such  objec- 
tions Mr.  Washington  replied,  "This  place  belongs  to  the 
people  and  not  to  us."  Less  than  a  third  of  these  eight 
58 


(D 

u 

a 


c 

o 

O 


M 
^4 


C 

a 
< 


'-a 
c 


E 


o 


c 


o 

E/5 


THE  EDUCATOR 

to  nine  thousand  people  are  able  to  crowd  into  the  chapel 
to  see  the  actual  graduation  exercises,  but  all  can  see  the 
graduation  procession  as  it  marches  through  the  grounds 
to  the  chapel  and  all  are  shown  through  the  shops  and  over 
the  farm  and  through  the  special  agricultural  exhibits, 
and  even  through  the  offices,  including  that  of  the  prin- 
cipal. It  is  significant  of  the  respect  in  which  the  people 
hold  the  Institute,  and  in  which  they  held  Booker  Wash- 
ington, that  in  all  these  years  there  has  never  been  on  these 
occasions  a  single  instance  of  drunkenness  or  disorderly 
conduct. 

In  his  annual  report  to  the  trustees  for  1914  Mr.  Wash- 
ington said  of  these  commencement  exercises:  "One  of  the 
problems  that  constantly  confronts  us  is  that  of  making 
the  school  of  real  service  to  these  people  on  this  one  day 
when  they  come  in  such  large  numbers.  For  many  of 
them  it  is  the  one  day  in  the  year  when  they  go  to  school, 
and  we  ought  to  find  a  way  to  make  the  day  of  additional 
value  to  them.  I  very  much  hope  that  in  the  near  future 
we  shall  find  it  possible  to  erect  some  kind  of  a  large  pa- 
vilion which  shall  serve  the  purpose  of  letting  these  thou- 
sands see  something  of  our  exercises  and  be  helped  by  them." 

The  philosophy  symbolized  by  such  graduation  exer- 
cises as  we  have  described  may  best  be  shown  by  quoting 
Mr.  Washington's  own  words  in  an  article  entitled,  "In- 
dustrial Education  and  the  Public  Schools,"  which  was 
published  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Polit- 
ical and  Social  Science  for  September  of  the  year  191 3. 
In  this  article  Mr.  Washington  says:  "If  I  were  asked 

59 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

what  I  believe  to  be  the  greatest  advance  which  Negro 
education  has  made  since  emancipation  I  should  say  that 
it  has  been  in  two  directions:  first,  the  change  which  has 
taken  place  among  the  masses  of  the  Negro  people  as  to 
what  education  really  is;  and,  second,  the  change  that  has 
taken  place  among  the  masses  of  the  white  people  in  the 
South  toward  Negro  education  itself. 

"I  can  perhaps  make  clear  what  I  mean  by  a  little  ex- 
planation: the  Negro  learned  in  slavery  to  work  but  he 
did  not  learn  to  respect  labor.  On  the  contrary,  the  Negro 
was  constantly  taught,  directly  and  indirectly  during 
slavery  times,  that  labor  was  a  curse.  It  was  the  curse 
of  Canaan,  he  was  told,  that  condemned  the  black  man  to 
be  for  all  time  the  slave  and  servant  of  the  white  man. 
It  was  the  curse  of  Canaan  that  made  him  for  all  time 
'a  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water.'  The  consequence 
of  this  teaching  was  that,  when  emancipation  came,  the 
Negro  thought  freedom  must,  in  some  way,  mean  freedom 
from  labor. 

"The  Negro  had  also  gained  in  slavery  some  general 
notions  in  regard  to  education.  He  observed  that  the 
people  who  had  education  for  the  most  part  belonged  to 
the  aristocracy,  to  the  master  class,  while  the  people  who 
had  little  or  no  education  were  usually  of  the  class  known 
as  'poor  whites.'  In  this  way  education  became  asso- 
ciated in  his  mind  with  leisure,  with  luxury,  and  freedom 
from  the  drudgery  of  work  with  the  hands.     .     .     . 

"In  order  to  make  it  possible  to  put  Negro  education 
on  a  sound  and  rational  basis  it  has  been  necessary  to 
60 


THE  EDUCATOR 

change  the  opinion  of  the  masses  of  the  Negro  people  in 
regard  to  education  and  labor.  It  has  been  necessary  to 
make  them  see  that  education,  which  did  not,  directly  or 
indirectly,  connect  itself  with  the  practical  daily  interests 
of  daily  life  could  hardly  be  called  education.  It  has  been 
necessary  to  make  the  masses  of  the  Negroes  see  and 
realize  the  necessity  and  importance  of  applying  what 
they  learned  in  school  to  the  common  and  ordinary  things 
of  life;  to  see  that  education,  far  from  being  a  means  of 
escaping  labor,  is  a  means  of  raising  up  and  dignifying 
labor  and  thus  indirectly  a  means  of  raising  up  and  dig- 
nifying the  common  and  ordinary  man.  It  has  been 
necessary  to  teach  the  masses  of  the  people  that  the  way 
tqbmldjup_a  race  is  to  begm-at-the  "bottom  andnot  at  the 
top,  to  lift  the  man  furthest  down,  and  thus  raise  the  whole 
structure  o£jociety»JiJ3ove.,him.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
has  been  necessary  to  demonstrate  to  the  white  man  in  the 
South  that  education  does  not  'spoil'  the  Negro,  as  it  has 
been  so  often  predicted  that  it  would.  It  was  necessary 
to  make  him  actually  see  that  education  makes  the 
Negro  not  an  idler  or  spendthrift,  but  a  more  industrious, 
thrifty,  law-abiding,  and  useful  citizen  than  he  otherwise 
would  be." 

The  commencement  exercises  which  we  have  described 
are  one  of  the  numerous  means  evolved  by  Booker  Washing- 
ton to  guide  the  masses  of  his  own  people,  as  well  as  the 
Southern  whites,  to  a  true  conception  of  the  value  and 
meaning  of  real  education  for  the  Negro. 

The  correlation  between  the  work  of  farm,  shop,  and 

61 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

classroom,  first  applied  by  General  Armstrong  at  Hamp- 
ton, was  developed  on  an  even  larger  scale  by  his  one-time 
student,  Booker  Washington.  The  students  at  Tuskegee 
are  divided  into  two  groups:  the  day  students  who  work 
in  the  classroom  half  the  week  and  the  other  half  on  the 
farm  and  in  the  shops,  and  the  night  students  who  work 
all  day  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shops  and  then  attend  school 
at  night.  The  day  school  students  pay  a  small  fee  in 
cash  toward  their  expenses,  while  the  night  school 
students  not  only  pay  no  fee  but  by  good  and  diligent 
work  gradually  accumulate  a  credit  at  the  school  bank 
which,  when  it  becomes  sufficiently  large,  enables  them 
to  become  day  school  students.  In  fact,  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  day  students  have  thus  fought  their  way  in 
from  the  night  school.  But  all  students  of  both  groups 
thus  receive  in  the  course  of  a  week  a  fairly  even  balance 
between  theory  and  practice. 

In  a  corner  of  each  of  the  shops,  in  which  are  carried 
on  the  forty  or  more  different  trades,  is  a  blackboard  on 
which  are  worked  out  the  actual  problems  which  arise  in 
the  course  of  the  work.  After  school  hours  one  always 
finds  in  the  shops  a  certain  number  of  the  teachers  from 
the  Academic  Department  looking  up  problems  for  their 
classes  for  the  next  day.  A  physics  teacher  may  be  found 
in  the  blacksmithing  shop  digging  up  problems  about  the 
tractive  strength  of  wires  and  the  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion of  metals  under  heat  and  cold.  A  teacher  of  chem- 
istry may  be  found  in  the  kitchen  of  the  cooking  school 
unearthing  problems  relating  to  the  chemistry  of  food  for 
62 


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THE  EDUCATOR 

her  class  the  next  day.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  go  into 
a  classroom  you  will  find  the  shop  is  brought  into  the  class- 
room just  as  the  classroom  has  been  brought  into  the 
shop.  For  instance,  in  a  certain  English  class  the  topic 
assigned  for  papers  was  "a  model  house"  instead  of 
"bravery"  or  "the  increase  of  crime  in  cities,"  or  "the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims."  The  boys  of  the  class  had  pre- 
pared papers  on  the  architecture  and  construction  of  a 
model  house,  while  the  girls'  papers  were  devoted  to  its 
interior  decoration  and  furnishing.  One  of  the  girls 
described  a  meal  for  six  which  she  had  actually  prepared 
and  the  six  had  actually  consumed.  The  meal  cost 
seventy-five  cents.  The  discussion  and  criticism  which 
followed  each  paper  had  all  the  zest  which  vitally  prac- 
tical and  near-at-hand  questions  always  arouse. 

When  the  Department  of  Superintendence  of  the  Na- 
tional Educational  Association  met  in  Atlanta,  Ga.,  in  1904, 
many  of  the  delegates,  after  adjournment,  visited  the 
Tuskegee  Institute.  Among  these  delegates  was  Prof. 
Paul  Monroe  of  the  Department  of  History  and  Princi- 
ples of  Education  of  the  Teachers'  College  of  Columbia 
University.  In  recording  his  impressions  of  his  visit, 
Professor  Monroe  says:  "My  interest  in  Tuskegee  and  a 
few  similar  institutions  is  founded  on  the  fact  that  here  I 
find  illustrated  the  two  most  marked  tendencies  which  are 
being  formulated  in  the  most  advanced  educational 
thought,  but  are  being  worked  out  slowly  and  with  great 
difficulty.  These  tendencies  are:  first,  the  endeavor  to 
draw  the  subject  matter  of  education,  or  the  'stuff'  of 

63 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

schoolroom  work,  directly  from  the  life  of  the  pupils;  and 
second,  to  relate  the  outcome  of  education  to  life's  activi- 
ties, occupations,  and  duties  of  the  pupil  in  such  a  way  that 
the  connection  is  made  directly  and  immediately  between 
schoolroom  work  and  the  other  activities  of  the  person 
being  educated.  This  is  the  ideal  at  Tuskegee,  and,  to  a 
much  greater  extent  than  in  any  other  institution  I  know 
of,  the  practice;  so  that  the  institution  is  working  along 
not  only  the  lines  of  practical  endeavor,  but  of  the  most 
advanced  educational  thought.  To  such  an  extent  is  this 
true  that  Tuskegee  and  Hampton  are  of  quite  as  great  in- 
terest to  the  student  of  education  on  account  of  the  illumi- 
nation they  are  giving  to  educational  theory  as  they  are  to 
those  interested  practically  in  the  elevation  of  the  Negro 
people  and  in  the  solution  of  a  serious  social  problem. 
May  I  give  just  one  illustration  of  a  concrete  nature  com- 
ing under  my  observation  while  at  the  school,  that  will  in- 
dicate the  difference  between  the  work  of  the  school  and 
that  which  was  typical  under  old  conditions,  or  is  yet 
typical  where  the  newer  ideas,  as  so  well  grasped  by  Mr. 
Washington,  are  not  accepted?  In  a  class  in  English 
composition  two  boys,  among  others,  had  placed  their 
written  work  upon  the  board,  one  having  written  upon 
*  Honor*  in  the  most  stilted  language,  with  various 
historical  references  which  meant  nothing  to  himself  or  to 
his  classmates — the  whole  paragraph  evidently  being 
drawn  from  some  outside  source;  the  other  wrote  upon 
'My  Trade — Blacksmithing' — and  told  in  a  simple  and 
direct  way  of  his  day's  work,  the  nature  of  the  general 
64 


THE  EDUCATOR 

course  of  training,  and  the  use  he  expected  to  make  of  his 
training  when  completed.  No  better  contrast  could  be 
found  between  the  old  ideas  of  formal  language  work, 
dominated  by  books  and  cast  into  forms  not  understood  or 
at  least  not  natural  to  the  youth,  and  the  newer  ideas  of 
simplicity,  directness,  and  forcefulness  in  presenting  the 
account  of  one's  own  experience.  Not  only  was  this  con- 
trast an  illustration  of  the  ideal  of  the  entire  education 
offered  at  Tuskegee  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  old,  formal, 
'literary*  education  as  imposed  upon  the  colored  race,  but 
it  gave  in  a  nutshell  a  concept  of  the  new  education.  This 
one  experience  drawn  from  the  life  of  the  boy  and  related 
directly  to  his  life's  duration  and  circumstances  was  educa- 
tion in  the  truest  sense;  the  other  was  not  save  as  Mr. 
Washington  made  it  so  in  its  failure.     .     .     ." 

Among  the  delegates  was  also  Mr.  A.  L.  Rafter,  the 
Assistant  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Boston,  who  in 
speaking  at  Tuskegee  said:  "What  Tuskegee  is  doing  for 
you  we  are  going  to  take  on  home  to  the  North.  You  are 
doing  what  we  are  talking  about."  In  general,  these  fore- 
most educational  experts  of  the  dominant  race  looked  to 
Booker  Washington  and  Tuskegee  for  leadership  instead  of 
expecting  him  or  his  school  to  follow  them. 

Booker  Washington  not  only  practised  at  Tuskegee  this 
close  relation  between  school  life  and  real  life — and  it  is 
being  continued  now  that  he  is  gone — but  preached  it 
whenever  and  wherever  opportunity  offered.  Some  years 
ago,  in  addressing  himself  to  those  of  his  own  students  who 
expected  to  become  teachers,  he  said  on  this  subject  among 

65 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

other  things:  ".  .  .  colored  parents  depend  upon 
seeing  the  results  of  education  in  ways  not  true  of  the  white 
parent.  It  is  important  that  the  colored  teacher  on  this 
account  give  special  attention  to  bringing  school  life  into 
closer  touch  with  real  life.  Any  education  is  to  my  mind 
'high'  which  enahles  the  individual  to  do  the  very  best 
work  for  the  people  by  whom  he  is  surrounded.  Any  edu- 
cation is  'low'  which  does  not  make  for  character  and 
effective  service. 

"The  average  teacher  in  the  public  schools  is  very  likely 
to  yield  to  the  temptation  of  thinking  that  he  is  educating 
an  individual  when  he  is  teaching  him  to  reason  out  ex- 
amples in  arithmetic,  to  prove  propositions  in  geometry, 
and  to  recite  pages  of  history.  He  conceives  this  to  be  the 
end  of  education.  Herein  is  the  sad  deficiency  in  many 
teachers  who  are  not  able  to  use  history,  arithmetic,  and  ge- 
ometry as  means  to  an  end.  They  get  the  idea  that  the 
student  who  has  mastered  a  certain  number  of  pages  in  a 
textbook  is  educated,  forgetting  that  textbooks  are  at 
best  but  tools,  and  in  many  cases  ineffective  tools,  for  the 
development  of  man. 

"The  average  parent  cannot  appreciate  how  many  ex- 
amples Johnny  has  worked  out  that  day,  how  many 
questions  in  history  he  has  answered;  but  when  he  says, 
'Mother,  I  cannot  go  back  to  that  school  until  all  the  but- 
tons are  sewed  on  my  coat,'  the  parent  will  at  once  become 
conscious  of  school  influence  in  the  home.  This  will  be  the 
best  kind  of  advertisement.  The  button  propaganda 
tends  to  make  the  teacher  a  power  in  the  community.  A 
66 


THE  EDUCATOR 

few  lessons  in  applied  chemistry  will  not  be  amiss.  Take 
grease  spots,  for  example.  The  teacher  who  with  tact  can 
teach  his  pupils  to  keep  even  threadbare  clothes  neatly 
brushed  and  free  from  grease  spots  is  extending  the  school 
influence  into  the  home  and  is  adding  immeasurably  to  the 
self-respect  of  the  home."* 

The  idea  that  education  is  a  matter  of  personal  habits  of 
cleanliness,  industry,  integrity,  and  right  conduct  while  of 
course  not  original  with  Booker  Washington  was  perhaps 
further  developed  and  more  effectively  emphasized  by  him 
than  by  any  other  American  education.  Just  as  Matthew 
Arnold  insisted  that  religion  was  a  matter  of  conduct 
rather  than  forms  and  dogmas  so  Booker  Washington  held 
that  education  is  a  matter  of  character  and  not  forms.  He 
concluded  one  of  his  Sunday  night  talks  to  his  students 
with  these  words:  "I  want  every  Tuskegee  student  as  he 
finds  his  place  in  the  surging  industrial  life  about  him  to 
give  heed  to  the  things  which  are  'honest  and  just  and 
pure  and  of  good  report,'  for  these  things  make  for  char- 
acter, which  is  the  only  thing  worth  fighting  for. 
In  another  of  these  talks  he  said:  "A  student  should  not 
be  satisfied  with  himself  until  he  has  grown  to  the  point 
where,  when  simply  sweeping  a  room,  he  can  go  into  the 
corners  and  crevices  and  remove  the  hidden  trash  which, 
although  it  should  be  left,  would  not  be  seen.  It  is  not 
very  hard  to  find  people  who  will  thoroughly  clean  a  room 
which  is  going  to  be  occupied,  or  wash  a  dish  which  is  to  be 


*From  "Putting  the  Most  Into  Life,"  by  Booker  T.  Washington.    Thomas  Y. 
Crowell  &  Co.,  Publishers. 

67 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

handled  by  strangers;  but  it  is  hard  to  find  a  person  who 
will  do  a  thing  right  when  the  eyes  of  the  world  are  not 
likely  to  look  upon  what  has  been  done.  The  cleaning  of 
rooms  and  the  washing  of  dishes  have  much  to  do  with 
forming  characters."* 

This  recalls  Booker  Washington's  own  experience  when 
as  a  ragged  and  penniless  youth  he  applied  for  admission 
to  Hampton  and  was  given  a  room  to  sweep  by  way  of  an 
entrance  examination.  Indeed,  one  of  Booker  Washing- 
ton's greatest  sources  of  strength  as  a  teacher  lay  in  the 
fact  that  his  own  life  not  only  illustrated  the  truth  of  his 
assertions,  but  illustrated  it  in  a  striking  and  dramatic 
manner.  His  life  was,  in  fact,  an  epitome  of  the  hardships, 
struggles,  and  triumphs  of  the  successful  members  of  his 
race  from  the  days  of  slavery  to  the  present  time.  A  great 
believer  in  the  power  of  example  he  lived  a  life  which  gave 
him  that  power  in  its  highest  degree.  Because  of  his  in- 
herent modesty  and  good  taste  he  never  referred  to  him- 
self or  his  achievements  as  examples  to  be  emulated,  and 
this  merely  further  enhanced  their  power. 

In  concluding  another  Sunday  night  talk  he  said :  "As  a 
race  we  are  inclined,  I  fear,  to  make  too  much  of  the  day  of 
judgment.  We  have  the  idea  that  in  some  far-off  period 
there  is  going  to  be  a  great  and  final  day  of  judgment,  when 
every  individual  will  be  called  up,  and  all  his  bad  deeds  will 
be  read  out  before  him  and  all  his  good  deeds  made  known. 
I  believe  that  every  day  is  a  day  of  judgment,  that  we  reap 

*"  Sowing  and  Reaping,"  by  Booker  T.  Washington.     L.  C.  Page  &  Co., 
Boston,  Publishers. 

68 


THE  EDUCATOR 

our  rewards  daily,  and  that  whenever  we  sin  we  are  pun- 
ished by  mental  and  physical  anxiety  and  by  a  weakened 
character  that  separates  us  from  God.  Every  day  is,  I 
take  it,  a  day  of  judgment,  and  as  we  learn  God's  laws  and 
grow  into  His  likeness  we  shall  find  our  reward  in  this  world 
in  a  life  of  usefulness  and  honor.  To  do  this  is  to  have 
found  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of  char- 
acter and  righteousness  and  peace."* 

To  quote  once  more  from  these  Sunday  night  talks,  in 
another  he  said:  "There  is,  then,  opportunity  for  the 
colored  people  to  enrich  the  material  life  of  their  adopted 
country  by  doing  what  their  hands  find  to  do,  minor  duties 
though  they  be,  so  well  that  nobody  of  any  race  can  do 
them  better.  This  is  the  aim  that  the  Tuskegee  student 
should  keep  steadily  before  him.  If  he  remembers  that 
all  service,  however  lowly,  is  true  service,  an  important 
step  will  have  been  taken  in  the  solution  of  what  we  term 
'the  race  problem.'" 

As  is  shown  by  these  quotations  Booker  Washington 
used  these  Sunday  night  talks  to  crystalize,  interpret,  and 
summarize  the  meaning  and  significance  of  the  kind  of 
education  which  Tuskegee  gives.  He,  the  supreme  head  of 
the  institution,  reserved  to  himself  this  supremely  im- 
portant task.  The  heads  of  the  manifold  trades  are 
naturally  and  properly  concerned  primarily  with  turning 
raw  boys  and  girls  into  good  workmen  and  workwomen. 
The  academic  teachers  in  the  school  are  similarly  inter- 

*From  "  Putting  the  Most  Into  Life,"  by  Booker  T.  Washington.  Thomas 
Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  Publishers. 

69 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

ested  in  helping  them  as  students  to  secure  a  mastery  of 
their  several  subjects.  The  military  commandants  are 
concerned  with  their  ability  to  drill,  march,  carry  them- 
selves properly,  and  take  proper  care  of  their  persons  and 
rooms.  The  physician  is  interested  in  their  physical 
health  and  the  chaplain  in  their  religious  training.  Im- 
portant as  are  all  these  phases  of  Tuskegee's  training  and 
closely  as  he  watched  each  Mr.  Washington  realized  that 
they  might  all  be  well  done  and  yet  Tuskegee  fail  in  its 
supreme  purpose:  namely,  the  making  of  manly  men  and 
womanly  women  out  of  raw  boys  and  girls.  As  he  said  in 
one  of  the  passages  quoted,  "character  is  the  only  thing 
worth  fighting  for."  Now,  while  the  forming  of  character  is 
the  aim,  and  in  some  appreciable  degree  the  achievement,  of 
every  worth-while  educational  institution,  it  is  to  a  peculiar 
degree  the  aim  and  the  achievement  of  Tuskegee.  The 
ten  million  Negroes  in  the  United  States  need  trained 
leaders  of  their  own  race  more  than  they  need  anything 
else.  Whatever  else  they  should  or  should  not  have  these 
leaders  must  have  character.  Since  Tuskegee  is  the 
largest  of  the  educational  institutions  for  Negroes,  with  the 
man  at  its  head  who  was  commonly  recognized  as  the 
leader  of  leaders  in  his  race,  naturally  the  heaviest  responsi- 
bility in  the  training  of  these  leaders  fell,  and  will  continue 
to  fall,  upon  Tuskegee.  Consequently  the  task  at  Tuske- 
gee is  not  so  much  to  educate  so  many  thousands  of  young 
men  and  women  as  to  train  as  many  leaders  for  the  Negro 
people  as  can  possibly  be  done  and  done  well  within  a 
given  space  of  time.  These  Tuskegee  graduates  lead  by 
70 


THE  EDUCATOR 

the  power  of  example  and  not  by  agitation.  One  runs  a 
farm  and  achieves  so  much  more  success  than  his  neigh- 
bors, through  his  better  methods,  that  they  gradually 
adopt  these  methods  and  with  his  help  apply  them  to  their 
own  conditions.  Another  teaches  a  country  school  and 
does  it  so  much  better  than  the  average  country  school 
teacher  that  his  or  her  school  comes  to  be  regarded  as  a 
model  to  be  emulated  by  the  other  schools  of  the  locality. 
When  a  Tuskegee  girl  marries  and  settles  in  a  community 
she  keeps  her  house  so  much  cleaner  and  in  every  way  more 
attractive  than  the  rank  and  file  of  her  neighbors  that 
gradually  her  house  and  her  methods  of  housekeeping  be- 
come the  standard  for  the  neighborhood.  There  is,  how- 
ever, nothing  of  the  "holier  than  thou"  or  the  complaisant 
about  the  true  Tuskegee  graduate  and  neither  is  there 
anything  monopolistic.  They  have  had  the  idea  of  service 
thoroughly  drilled  into  their  consciousness — the  idea  that 
their  advantages  of  education  are,  as  it  were,  a  trust  which 
they  are  to  administer  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  have  not 
had  such  advantages. 

Now  such  leaders  as  these  must  not  only  be  provided  if 
the  so-called  race  problem  is  to  be  solved,  but  they  must 
be  provided  speedily.  In  every  community  in  which  the 
black  people  are  ignorant  and  vicious  and  without  trained 
leaders  among  themselves  they  are  likely  at  any  time  to 
come  into  conflict  with  the  dominant  race,  and  every  such 
conflict  engenders  bitterness  on  both  sides  and  makes  just 
so  much  more  difficult  the  final  solution  of  the  race  prob- 
lem.    This  is  why   Booker  Washington   labored   so  in- 

7i 


BOOKER*  T.  WASHINGTON 

cessantly  to  increase  the  quantity  of  Tuskegee's  output 
as  well  as  to  maintain  the  quality.  He  brought  Tus- 
kegee  to  the  point  where  it  reached  through  all  its  courses 
including  its  summer  courses,  short  courses,  and  extension 
courses,  more  than  4,000  people  in  a  single  year,  not 
counting  the  well-nigh  innumerable  hosts  he  counseled 
with  on  his  State  educational  tours.  In  short,  Booker 
Washington's  task  at  Tuskegee  was  not  only  to  turn  out 
good  leaders  for  his  people,  but  to  turn  them  out  whole- 
sale and  as  fast  as  possible.  He  was,  as  it  were,  running  a 
race  with  the  powers  of  ignorance,  poverty,  and  vice.  This 
in  part  accounted  for  the  sense  of  terrific  pressure  which 
one  felt  at  Tuskegee,  particularly  when  he  was  present  and 
personally  driving  forward  his  great  educational  machine. 
This  also  may  have  accounted  for  the  seeming  lack 
of  finesse  in  small  matters  which  occasionally  annoyed 
critical  visitors  who  did  not  understand  that  the  great  in- 
stitution was  racing  under  the  spur  of  its  indomitable 
master,  and  that  just  as  in  any  race  all  but  essentials  must 
be  thrown  aside. 

Long  before  the  University  of  Wisconsin  had,  through  its 
extension  courses,  extended  its  opportunities  in  greater  or 
less  degree  to  the  citizens  of  the  entire  State,  Booker  Wash- 
ington, through  similar  means,  had  extended  the  advan- 
tages of  Tuskegee  throughout  Macon  County  in  particular 
and  the  State  of  Alabama  and  neighboring  States  in  general. 

The  extension  work  of  Tuskegee  began  in  a  small  way 
over  twenty  years  ago.  It  preceded  even  the  work  of  the 
demonstration  agents  of  the  United  States  Department 
72 


THE  EDUCATOR 

of  Agriculture.  There  was  first  only  one  man  who  in  his 
spare  time  went  out  among  the  farming  people  and  tried  to 
arouse  enthusiasm  for  better  methods  of  farming,  better 
schools,  and  better  homes.  He  was  followed  by  a  com- 
mittee of  three  members  of  the  Tuskegee  faculty,  which 
committee  still  directs  the  work.  One  of  the  first  efforts 
of  this  committee  was  to  get  the  farmers  to  adopt  deep 
plowing.  There  was  not  a  two-horse  plow  to  be  found. 
There  was  a  strong  prejudice  against  deep  plowing  which 
was  thus  expressed  by  a  Negro  preacher  farmer  whom  one 
of  the  committee  tried  to  persuade:  "We  don't  want  deep 
plowing.  You're  fixin' for  us  to  have  no  soil.  If  we  plow 
deep  it  will  all  wash  away  and  in  a  year  or  two  we  will  have 
to  clear  new  ground."  Not  long  after  this  a  member  of 
the  committee  with  a  two-horse  plow  was  practising  what 
he  had  been  preaching  when  a  white  planter  who  was  pass- 
ing stopped  and  said:  "See  here,  its  none  of  my  business 
of  course,  but  you're  new  here  and  I  don't  want  to  see  you 
fail.  But  if  you  plow  your  land  deep  like  that  you'll  ruin 
it  sure.     I  know.     I've  been  here." 

After  a  time,  however,  the  committee  persuaded  a  few 
colored  farmers  to  try  deep  plowing  on  a  small  scale  as  an 
experiment.  One  of  the  first  of  these  was  a  poor  man  who 
had  had  the  hardest  kind  of  a  struggle  scraping  a  scant 
existence  out  of  the  soil  for  himself  and  his  large  family. 
He  was  desperate  and  agreed  to  try  the  new  method.  He 
got  results  the  first  year,  moved  on  to  better  land  and  fol- 
lowed instructions.  In  a  few  years  he  bought  500  acres  of 
land,  gave  each  of  his  four  sons  100  acres,  and  kept  100  acres 

73 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

for  himself.     Since  then  father  and  sons  alike  have  been 
prosperous  and  contented  and  have  added  to  their  holdings. 

In  short,  these  Negro  farmers  were  no  more  eager  to  be 
reformed  and  improved  in  their  methods  than  are  any 
normal  people.  There  is  a  shallow  popular  sentiment  that 
unless  people  are  eager  for  enlightenment  and  gratefully 
receive  what  is  offered  them  they  should  be  left  unen- 
lightened. Booker  Washington  never  shared  this  senti- 
ment. His  agent  reported  that  in  response  to  their  appeals 
for  the  raising  of  a  better  grade  of  cattle,  hogs,  and  fowl 
the  farmers  replied  that  the  stock  they  had  was  good 
enough.  One  of  their  favorite  comments  was,  "When  you 
eat  an  egg  what  difference  does  it  make  to  you  whether 
that  egg  was  laid  by  a  full-blooded  fowl  or  a  mongrel?" 
Instead  of  being  discouraged  or  disgusted  by  this  attitude 
on  the  part  of  the  people  he  merely  regarded  it  as  what 
was  to  be  expected  and  set  about  devising  means  to  over- 
come it.  As  always  he  placed  his  chief  reliance  upon  the 
persuasive  eloquence  of  the  concrete.  He  decided  to  send 
blooded  stock  and  properly  raised  products  around  among 
the  farmers  so  that  they  might  compare  them  with  their 
inferior  stock  and  products  and  see  the  difference  with  their 
own  eyes.  This  plan  was  later  carried  out  through  the 
Jesup  Wagon  contributed  by  the  late  Morris  K.  Jesup  of 
New  York.  This  wagon  was  a  peripatetic  farmers'  school. 
It  took  a  concentrated  essence  of  Tuskegees'  agricultural 
department  to  the  farmers  who  could  not  or  would  not 
come  to  Tuskegee. 

The  wagon  was  drawn  by  a  well-bred  and  well-fed  mule. 

74 


THE  EDUCATOR 

A  good  breed  of  cow  was  tied  behind.  Several  chickens 
of  good  breeds,  well-developed  ears  of  corn,  stalks  of  cotton, 
bundles  of  oats  and  seeds,  and  garden  products,  which 
ought  at  the  time  to  be  growing  in  the  locality,  together 
with  a  proper  plow,  for  deep  plowing,  were  loaded  upon  the 
wagon.  The  driver  would  pull  up  before  a  farmhouse, 
deliver  his  message,  and  point  out  the  strong  points  of  his 
wagonload  and  would  finally  request  a  strip  of  ground  for 
cultivation.  This  request  granted  he  would  harness  the 
mule  to  the  plow,  break  the  ground  deep,  make  his  rows, 
plant  his  seeds,  and  move  on  to  the  next  locality.  With  a 
carefully  planned  follow-up  system  he  would  return  to 
each  such  plot  for  cultivation  and  harvest,  and,  most  im- 
portant of  all,  to  demonstrate  the  truths  he  had  sought  to 
impress  upon  the  people  by  word  of  mouth.  Where  the  first 
driver  sent  out  was  a  general  farmer,  the  second  would  be, 
let  us  say,  a  dairyman,  the  third  a  truck  gardener,  and 
finally  a  poultry  raiser  would  go;  usually  a  woman,  since  in 
the  South  women,  for  the  most  part,  handle  this  phase  of 
farming.  These  agents  also  distribute  pamphlets  prepared 
by  the  Agricultural  Research  Department  of  Tuskegee  on 
such  subjects  as  school  gardening,  twenty-one  ways  to 
cook  cowpeas,  improvement  of  rural  schools,  how  to  fight 
insect  pests,  cotton  growing,  etc.  The  constant  emphasis 
upon  practice  by  no  means  entails  any  neglect  of  theory. 
Besides  this  work  there  is  each  January  for  two  weeks  at 
Tuskegee  the  regular  Farmers'  Short  Course.  Many  of 
the  country  schools  adjourn  for  this  period  so  that  both 
teachers  and  pupils  may  attend.     In  this  course  not  only 

75 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

teachers  and  pupils,  but  fathers  and  mothers,  sons  and 
daughters  sit  side  by  side  in  the  classrooms  receiving 
instruction  in  stock  raising,  canning,  poultry  raising,  and 
farming  in  all  its  branches.  There  are  special  courses  for 
the  women  and  girls  in  the  care  of  children  and  in  house- 
keeping. The  following  breezy  announcement  is  taken 
from  the  prospectus  of  this  course  for  the  year  191 4: 

"  A  creation  of  the  farmer,  by  the  farmers  and  for  the  farmer." 

"It  meets  the  crying  needs  of  thousands  of  our  boys 
and  girls,  fathers  and  mothers. 

"  It's  free  to  all — no  examination  nor  entrance  fee  is  required. 

"It  started  7  years  ago  with  11  students;  the  second 
year  we  had  17,  the  third  year  we  had  70,  the  fourth  year 
we  had  490,  and  last  year  we  had  nearly  2,000.  It  is 
the  only  thing  of  its  kind  for  the  betterment  of  the  colored 
farmers.  It  lasts  for  only  12  days.  It  comes  at  a  time 
when  you  would  be  celebrating  Christmas.*  In  previous 
years  the  farmers  have  walked  from  3  to  6  miles  to  attend; 
many  have  come  on  horseback,  in  wagons,  and  in  buggies. 
You  who  live  so  that  you  cannot  come  in  daily  can  secure 
board  near  the  school  for  $2.50  per  week.  We  expect 
2,000  to  2,500  to  enter  this  year." 

And  then  as  a  further  stimulus  to  attend  there  comes : 


(C 

(< 


'Prizes  will  be  given  as  follows: 

'A  prize  of  #5  will  be  given  to  the  person  who  makes  the 
greatest  progress  on  all  subjects  taught. 

There  is  a  custom  among  the  colored  people,  inherited  from  the  days  of 
slavery,  which  is  fortunately  now  drying  out,  to  celebrate  Christmas  for  a  period 
of  a  week  or  ten  days  by  stopping  work  and  giving  themselves  over  to  a  round 
of  sprees. 


THE  EDUCATOR 

"A  prize  of  $2  will  be  given  to  the  person  who  is  the  best 
judge  of  livestock. 

"A  prize  of  #1  will  be  given  to  the  person  who  shows 
the  best  knowledge  of  the  use  and  application  of  manures 
and  fertilizers.  And  so  on  through  a  further  list  of  one- 
dollar  prizes  for  all  the  major  activities  of  the  Course." 

It  will  be  noted  that  there  is  nothing  stilted  or  academic 
about  this  announcement. 

Immediately  following  this  Farmers'  Short  Course 
comes  the  Annual  Farmers'  Conference  which  holds  its 
session  in  January  of  each  year.  To  enforce  the  lessons 
in  canning,  stock  raising,  gardening,  and  all  the  other 
branches  of  farming,  exhibits  of  the  best  products  in  each 
activity  are  displayed  before  the  audience  of  farmers  and 
their  families,  who  number  in  all  about  2,000.  These 
exhibits  are  made  and  explained  by  the  farmers  themselves. 
The  man,  woman,  or  child  who  has  produced  the  exhibit 
comes  to  the  platform  and  explains  in  his  or  her  own  way 
just  how  it  was  done.  In  these  explanations  much  human 
nature  is  thrown  in.  An  amazingly  energetic  and  capable 
woman  had  explained  at  one  of  these  gatherings  how  she 
had  paid  off  the  mortgage  on  their  farm  by  the  proceeds 
from  her  eggs,  her  kitchen  garden,  and  her  preserving  in  her 
spare  moments  when  she  was  not  helping  her  husband  in  the 
cotton  field,  washing  and  dressing  her  six  children,  or  cook- 
ing, mending,  washing,  and  scrubbing  for  the  household. 

In  conclusion  she  said: 

"Now  my  ole  man  he's  an'  old-fashion  farmer  an'  he 
don'  kere  fur  dese  modern  notions,  an'  so  I  don't  git  no 

77 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

help  from  him,  an'  that  makes  it  hard  for  me  'cause  it 
ain't  nat'ral  for  der  woman  to  lead.  If  I  could  only  git 
him  to  move  I'd  be  happier  jest  ter  foller  him."  While 
these  explanations  are  going  on  the  farmers  in  the  audience 
are  naturally  saying  to  themselves  over  and  over  again, 
"I  could  do  that!"  or  "Why  couldn't  I  do  that?" 

One  of  Mr.  Washington's  chief  aims  was  to  increase  the 
wants  of  his  people  and  at  the  same  time  increase  their 
ability  to  satisfy  them.  In  other  words,  he  believed  in 
fermenting  in  their  minds  what  might  be  termed  an  effec- 
tive discontent  with  their  circumstances.  With  this  pur- 
pose in  view  he  addressed  to  them  at  these  conferences  such 
questions  as  the  following: 

"What  kind  of  house  do  you  live  in?" 
Do  you  own  that  house?" 
What  kind  of  schoolhouse  have  you?" 
Do  you  send  your  children  to  school  regularly?" 
How  many  months  does  your  school  run?" 
Do  you  keep  your  teacher  in  the  community?" 
What  kind  of  church  have  you?" 
'Where  does  your  pastor  live?" 
"Are   your   church,    school,    and   home   fences   white- 
washed?" 

The  farmers  who  were  asked  these  questions  would 
make  an  inward  resolve  that  they  would  do  what  they 
could  to  put  themselves  in  a  position  to  answer  the  same 
questions  more  satisfactorily  another  year. 

Another  feature  of  the  work  of  Tuskegee  beyond  its  own 
borders  is  that  of  the  Rural  School  Extension  Department. 

78 


t(  ■ 
« 


THE  EDUCATOR 

Mr.  Julius  Rosenwald  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  trustees  of 
Tuskegee,  has  offered,  through  this  department,  during  a 
stated  period  of  time,  to  add  #300  to  every  #300  the  Ne- 
groes in  rural  communities  of  the  South  raise  for  the 
building  of  a  new  and  modern  schoolhouse.  Under  this 
plan  ninety-two  modern  rural  school  buildings  have  al- 
ready been  constructed.  At  the  close  of  the  time  set  Mr. 
Rosenwald  will  probably  renew  his  offer  for  a  further 
period.  The  social  by-products  of  this  campaign,  in 
teaching  the  Negroes  of  these  communities  how  to  dis- 
regard their  denominational  and  other  feuds  in  working 
together  for  a  high  civic  purpose  of  common  advantage  to 
all,  and  the  friendly  interest  in  Negro  education  awakened 
among  their  white  neighbors,  have  been  almost  if  not  quite 
as  important  as  the  new  schools  themselves. 

There  is  also  at  Tuskegee  a  summer  school  for  teachers 
in  which  last  year  were  registered  437  teachers  from  fifteen 
Southern  and  several  other  States.  Most  of  these  teachers 
elect  such  practical  subjects  as  canning,  basket-making, 
broom-making,  shuck  and  pine  needlework  or  some  form 
of  manual  training,  as  well  as  the  teacher-training  courses. 
One  of  these  students,  who  was  the  supervisor  of  the 
Negro  schools  of  an  entire  county,  when  she  returned  from 
her  summer  school  work  proceeded  to  vivify  her  dead 
schools  by  introducing  the  making  of  wash-boards,  trash 
baskets,  baskets  made  of  weeping-willow,  and  pine  needle 
work  in  its  various  forms.  The  registration  soared  at 
once,  the  indifferent  Negro  parents  became  interested, 
and  before  long  the  parents  of  white  children  complained 

79 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

to  the  county  superintendent  that  the  colored  children 
were  being  taught  more  than  their  children. 

There  is  at  the  present  time  being  developed  at  Tuskegee 
a  unique  experiment  in  the  nature  of  what  might  be  called 
a  post-graduate  school  in  real  life  for  the  graduates  of 
the  agricultural  department.  This  consists  in  providing 
such  graduates,  who  have  no  property  of  their  own,  with 
a  forty-acre  farm,  on  an  1,800-acre  tract  about  nine  miles 
from  Tuskegee,  known  as  Baldwin  Farms,  after  the  late 
Wm.  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  who  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 
devoted  supporters  and  advisers  of  Booker  Washington 
and  Tuskegee.  The  land  is  held  by  the  Tuskegee  Farm 
and  Improvement  Company  which  is  conducted  on  a 
business  and  not  a  charitable  basis.  The  company  sells 
the  farms  at  an  average  price  of  $15  an  acre,  and  purchasers 
who  move  directly  on  to  the  land  are  given  ten  years  in 
which  to  pay  for  it,  with  the  first  payment  at  the  end  of 
the  first  year.  If  there  is  no  house  on  the  land  the  com- 
pany will  put  up  a  $300  house  so  planned  as  to  permit 
the  addition  of  rooms  and  improvements  as  rapidly  as  the 
purchaser  is  able  to  pay  for  them;  the  cost  to  be  added 
to  the  initial  cost  of  the  land.  When  the  graduate  lacks 
the  money  and  equipment  necessary  to  plant,  raise,  and 
harvest  crops,  for  this,  too,  the  company  will  advance  a 
reasonable  sum,  taking  as  security  a  mortgage  on  crops 
and  equipment  until  the  loan  has  been  paid  off.  This 
mortgage  bears  interest  at  8  per  cent,  while  the  interest 
on  the  mortgage  on  the  land  is  not  more  than  6  per  cent. 
Through  cooperative  effort  within  this  colony  it  is  pro- 
80 


THE  EDUCATOR 

posed  to  develop  such  organizations  as  cooperative  dairy, 
fruit  growing,  poultry,  and  live-stock  associations  and 
thus  make  it  possible  for  the  members  of  the  colony  to 
make  not  only  a  comfortable  living  but  to  lay  by  some- 
thing. They  will,  of  course,  have  also  the  great  advan- 
tage of  the  advice  and  guidance  of  the  experts  of  the 
Institute.  Formerly  the  penniless  Negro  youth,  who 
graduated  even  most  creditably  from  the  agricultural 
department  of  Tuskegee,  had  before  him  nothing  better 
than  a  greater  or  less  number  of  years  of  monotonous 
drudgery  as  a  mere  farm  or  plantation  laborer.  Now,  he 
may  at  once  take  up  his  own  farm  at  Baldwin  and  begin 
immediately  to  apply  all  he  has  learned  in  carving  out 
his  own  fortune  and  future.  Thus  did  Booker  Washington 
plan  to  carry  the  benefits  of  classroom  instruction  directly 
into  the  actual  life  problems  of  these  graduates  as  well  as 
bringing  the  problems  of  actual  life  into  the  classroom. 

However  much  Mr.  Washington  may  have  seemed 
to  eliminate  non-essentials  in  the  pressure  and  haste  of 
his  wholesale  educational  task  he  never  neglected  essen- 
tials, but  among  essentials  he  included  matters  which 
might  on  the  surface  appear  to  be  small  and  trifling. 
For  instance,  he  insisted  upon  good  table  manners,  and 
no  boy  or  girl  could  spend  any  considerable  time  at 
Tuskegee  without  acquiring  such  manners.  Instead  of 
a  trivial  detail  he  regarded  good  table  manners  as  an 
essential  to  self-respect  and  hence  to  the  development  of 
character.  In  short,  he  was  engaged  not  so  much  in 
conducting  a  school  as  educating  a  race. 

81 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

THE    RIGHTS    OF    THE    NEGRO 

BOOKER  WASHINGTON  was  occasionally  accused 
both  by  agitators  in  his  own  race  and  by  a  certain 
type  of  Northern  white  men  who  pose  as  the  special 
champions  of  the  "downtrodden"  black  man  as  en- 
couraging a  policy  of  submission  to  injustice  on  the 
part  of  his  people.  He  was,  for  example,  charged  with 
tame  acquiescence  in  the  practical  disfranchisement  of 
the  Negro  in  a  number  of  the  Southern  States.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  when  these  disfranchising  measures  were 
under  consideration  and  before  they  were  enacted,  he 
in  each  case  earnestly  pleaded  with  the  legislators  that 
whatever  restrictions  in  the  use  of  the  ballot  they  put 
upon  the  statute  books  should  be  applied  with  absolute 
impartiality  to  both  races.  This  he  urged  in  fairness  to 
the  white  man  as  well  as  the  black  man. 

In  an  article  entitled,  "Is  the  Negro  Having  a  Fair 
Chance?"  published  in  the  Century  Magazine  five  years 
ago,  Booker  Washington  said  in  illustrating  the  evil 
consequences  of  discrimination  in  the  application  of  ballot 
regulations:  "In  a  certain  county  of  Virginia,  where 
the  county  board  had  charge  of  registering  those  who 
were  to  be  voters,  a  colored  man,  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
82 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

University,  who  had  long  been  a  resident  of  the  county, 
a  quiet,  unassuming  man,  went  before  the  board  to 
register.  He  was  refused  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not 
intelligent  enough  to  vote.  Before  this  colored  man 
left  the  room  a  white  man  came  in  who  was  so  intoxicated 
that  he  could  scarcely  tell  where  he  lived.  This  white 
man  was  registered,  and  by  a  board  of  intelligent  white 
men  who  had  taken  an  oath  to  deal  justly  in  administering 
the  law. 

"Will  any  one  say  that  there  is  wisdom  or  statesman- 
ship in  such  a  policy  as  that?  In  my  opinion  it  is  a  fatal 
mistake  to  teach  the  young  black  man  and  the  young 
white  man  that  the  dominance  of  the  white  race  in  the 
South  rests  upon  any  other  basis  than  absolute  justice 
to  the  weaker  man.  It  is  a  mistake  to  cultivate  in  the 
mind  of  any  individual  or  group  of  individuals  the  feeling 
and  belief  that  their  happiness  rests  upon  the  misery  of 
some  one  else,  or  that  their  intelligence  is  measured  by  the 
ignorance  of  some  one  else;  or  their  wealth  by  the  poverty 
of  some  one  else.  I  do  not  advocate  that  the  Negro 
make  politics  or  the  holding  of  office  an  important  thing 
in  his  life.  I  do  urge,  in  the  interest  of  fair  play  for 
everybody,  that  a  Negro  who  prepares  himself  in  prop- 
erty, in  intelligence,  and  in  character  to  cast  a  ballot, 
and  desires  to  do  so,  should  have  the  opportunity." 

While  Booker  Washington  did  not  believe  that  political 
activities  should  play  an  important  part  among  the 
Negroes  as  a  whole  he  did  believe  that  the  exceptional 
Negro  who  was  particularly  qualified  for  holding  public 

83 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

office  should  be  given  the  opportunity  just  as  he  believed 
in  the  higher  academic  education  for  the  relatively 
small  minority  capable  of  profiting  by  such  an  educa- 
tion. 

In  concluding  a  letter  in  which  he  asks  Booker  Wash- 
ington to  recommend  a  member  of  his  race  for  a  Federal 
office  in  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  President  Roosevelt  said: 
"The  question  of  the  political  importance  of  the  colored 
man  is  really  of  no  consequence.  I  do  not  care  to  con- 
sider it,  and  you  must  not  consider  it.  Give  me  the  very 
best  colored  man  that  you  know  of  for  the  place,  upon 
whose  integrity  and  capacity  we  can  surely  rely." 

The  man,  T.  V.  McAlister,  whom  Mr.  Washington 
"gave"  the  President  for  this  office  was  of  such  character 
and  reputation  that  the  white  citizens  of  Vicksburg  actu- 
ally welcomed  his  appointment.  Certainly  neither  Vicks- 
burg nor  any  other  portion  of  Mississippi  can  be  accused 
of  over-enthusiasm  for  conferring  civil  and  political  privi- 
leges upon  Negroes. 

Booker  Washington's  habit  of  never  losing  an  oppor- 
tunity to  advance  constructively  the  interests  of  his 
people  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following  letter  to  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt: 

[Personal] 

March  20,  1904. 
My  Dear  Mr.  President:    It  has  occurred  to  me  that 
there  are  a  number  of  ways  in  which  the  colored  people 
of  the  United  States  could  be  of  service  in  digging  the 
84 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

Panama  Canal,  and  personally  I  should  be  glad  to  do 
anything  in  my  power  in  getting  them  interested  if  deemed 
practicable. 

First:  I  think  they  can  stand  the  climate  better  or  as 
well  as  any  other  people  from  the  United  States. 

Second:  I  have  thought  that  a  reasonably  satisfactory 
number  of  them  might  be  useful  as  common,  or  skilled, 
laborers. 

Third:  That  in  the  Health  Department  our  well- 
trained  nurses  and  physicians  might  be  found  help- 
ful. 

Fourth:  If  the  United  States  should  assume  any  re- 
sponsibility as  to  education,  that  many  efficient  colored 
teachers  from  our  industrial  schools,  and  colleges,  might 
prove  of  great  benefit.  And,  then,  besides  the  presence 
of  these  educated  persons  would,  in  my  opinion,  both  by 
character  and  example,  aid  in  influencing  the  morality 
of  the  darker-skinned  people  to  be  employed  at  the  Isth- 
mus. I  believe  that  these  educated  colored  people  could 
get  closer  to  the  masses  than  white  men. 

Yours  truly, 

Booker  T.  Washington. 

To  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Nothing  came  of  this  suggestion  except  an  acknowledg- 
ment and  an  assurance  that  the  matter  would  be  con- 
sidered. About  two  years  ago,  however,  when  Doctor 
Washington  and  Surgeon-General  Gorgas  met  on  a  train 
the   Surgeon-General   said   to   Mr.   Washington:     "The 

85 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

biggest  man  at  the  canal  was  the  Negro,"  and  he  added 
that  when  they  came  to  the  dedication  of  the  canal  at 
its  formal  opening  some  Negro  should  have  a  place  on 
the  program. 

In  recent  years  a  certain  section  of  the  Republicans  in 
the  far  Southern  States  have  tried  to  free  themselves  of 
the  reputation  of  being  "nigger  lovers"  by  vying  with 
their  Democratic  rivals  in  seeking  to  deprive  Negroes  of 
civic  and  political  rights.  Republicans  of  this  particular 
stripe  are  known  colloquially  as  the  "Lily  Whites."  In 
this  connection  the  following  correspondence  is  of  interest. 


[Copy] 

[Personal] 

White  House, 
Washington,  March  21,  1904. 

Dear  Mr.  Washington  :  By  direction  of  the  President 
I  send  you  herewith  for  your  private  information  a  copy 
of  letter  from  the  President  to  Mr. ,  dated  Febru- 
ary 24,  1904.  Please  return  it  to  me  when  you  have 
read  it. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Wm.  Loeb,  Jr., 
Secretary  to  the  President. 
Principal  Booker   T.  Washington,    Tuskegee  Normal  and 

Industrial  Institute,  Tuskegee,  Alabama. 
86 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 
This  was  the  letter  enclosed : 

[Copy] 

[Personal] 

White  House, 
Washington,  February  24,  1904. 

My  Dear  Mr. :  I  take  it  for  granted  that  there  is 

no  intention  of  making  the  Louisiana  delegation  all  white. 
I  think  it  would  be  a  mistake  for  my  friends  to  take  any 
such  attitude  in  any  state  where  there  is  a  considerable 
Negro  population.  I  think  it  is  a  great  mistake  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  whites;  and  in  an  organization  composed 
of  men  whom  I  have  especially  favored  it  would  put  me 
in  a  false  light.  As  you  know,  I  feel  as  strongly  as  any 
one  can  that  there  must  be  nothing  like  "Negro  domi- 
nation." On  the  other  hand,  I  feel  equally  strongly  that 
the  Republicans  must  consistently  favor  those  compara- 
tively few  colored  people  who  by  character  and  intelli- 
gence show  themselves  entitled  to  such  favor.  To  put  a 
premium  upon  the  possession  of  such  qualities  among  the 
blacks  is  not  only  to  benefit  them,  but  to  benefit  the 
whites  among  whom  they  live.  I  very  earnestly  hope  that 
the  Louisiana  Republicans  whom  I  have  so  consistently 
favored  will  not  by  any  action  of  theirs  tend  to  put  me  in 
a  false  position  in  such  a  matter  as  this.  With  your  entire 
approval,  I  have  appointed  one  or  two  colored  men  entitled 
by  character  and  standing  to  go  to  the  National  Con- 
vention. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

In  the  year  1898  the  success  of  the  suffrage  amendments 
in  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  in  excluding  from  the 

87 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

franchise  more  than  nine-tenths  of  their  Negro  inhabitants 
inspired  an  agitation  in  Louisiana  to  cut  off  the  Negro 
vote  by  similar  means,  and  this  agitation  came  to  a  head 
in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  that  year.  Mr. 
Washington,  assisted  by  T.  Thomas  Fortune,  the  well- 
known  Negro  editor,  and  Mr.  Scott,  his  secretary,  pre- 
pared an  open  letter  addressed  to  this  convention  which 
was  taken  to  the  convention  by  Mr.  Scott  and  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  suffrage  committee  as  well  as  the  editors 
of  the  New  Orleans  Times-Democrat  and  the  Picayune,  the 
leading  daily  papers  of  the  State.  Extracts  from  the  letter 
were  sent  out  by  the  local  representative  of  the  Associated 
Press  and  widely  published  throughout  the  country. 
These  New  Orleans  editors  expressed  to  Mr.  Scott  their 
approval  of  the  letter  and  their  substantial  agreement  with 
its  main  features,  and  promised  to  publish  it  in  full,  which 
they  not  only  did,  but  accompanied  it  by  editorial  re- 
views.    This  letter  stated  in  part: 

"The  Negro  agrees  with  you  that  it  is  necessary  to  the 
salvation  of  the  South  that  restriction  be  put  upon  the 
ballot.  .  .  .  With  the  sincerest  sympathy  with  you 
in  your  efforts  to  find  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  I  want 
to  suggest  that  no  State  in  the  South  can  make  a  law  that 
will  provide  an  opportunity  or  temptation  for  an  ignorant 
white  man  to  vote  and  withhold  the  same  opportunity  from 
an  ignorant  colored  man,  without  injuring  both  men. 
.  .  .  Any  law  controlling  the  ballot,  that  is  not  abso- 
lutely just  and  fair  to  both  races,  will  work  more  perma- 
nent injury  to  the  whites  than  to  the  blacks. 
88 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

"The  Negro  does  not  object  to  an  educational  or  prop- 
erty test,  but  let  the  law  be  so  clear  that  no  one  clothed 
with  state  authority  will  be  tempted  to  perjure  and  de- 
grade himself  by  putting  one  interpretation  upon  it  for  the 
white  man  and  another  for  the  black  man.  Study  the 
history  of  the  South,  and  you  will  find  that  where  there 
has  been  the  most  dishonesty  in  the  matter  of  voting,  there 
you  will  find  to-day  the  lowest  moral  condition  of  both 
races.  First,  there  was  the  temptation  to  act  wrongly 
with  the  Negro's  ballot.  From  this  it  was  an  easy  step 
to  dishonesty  with  the  white  man's  ballot,  to  the  carrying 
of  concealed  weapons,  to  the  murder  of  a  Negro,  and  then 
to  the  murder  of  a  white  man  and  then  to  lynching.  I 
entreat  you  not  to  pass  such  a  law  as  will  prove  an  eternal 
millstone  about  the  neck  of  your  children." 

Later  in  the  same  appeal  he  said:  "I  beg  of  you,  further, 
that  in  the  degree  that  you  close  the  ballot-box  against  the 
ignorant,  that  you  open  the  schoolhouse.  .  .  .  Let 
the  very  best  educational  opportunities  be  provided  for 
both  races:  and  add  to  this  the  enactment  of  an  election 
law  that  shall  be  incapable  of  unjust  discrimination,  at  the 
same  time  providing  that  in  proportion  as  the  ignorant 
secure  education,  property,  and  character,  they  will  be 
given  the  right  of  citizenship.  Any  other  course  will  take 
from  one  half  your  citizens  interest  in  the  State,  and  hope 
and  ambition  to  become  intelligent  producers  and  tax- 
payers— to  become  useful  and  virtuous  citizens.  Any 
other  course  will  tie  the  white  citizens  of  Louisiana  to  a 
body  of  death." 

89 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

The  New  Orleans  Times-Democrat,  in  its  editorial  ac- 
companying the  publication  of  this  letter,  said:  "We  have 
seen  the  corrupting  influence  in  our  politics  and  our  elec- 
tions of  making  fraud  an  element  of  our  suffrage  system. 
We  are  certainly  not  going  to  get  away  from  fraud  by 
encouraging  it,  or  making  it  a  part  of  the  suffrage  system 
we  place  in  our  new  constitution."  The  same  editorial 
further  states  that  impartiality  in  the  use  of  the  ballot 
can  be  given  Negro  and  white  man  not  only  "with  the 
utmost  safety,"  but  "it  would  have  a  beneficial  effect 
upon  the  politics  of  the  State."  In  fact,  the  press  of  both 
North  and  South,  both  of  the  whites  and  the  blacks,  pub- 
lished this  letter  with  practically  unanimous  editorial 
endorsement,  but  in  spite  of  all  this  the  leaders  of  the  con- 
vention remained  obdurate,  the  immediate  object  was 
lost,  and  Louisiana  followed  the  example  of  Mississippi 
and  South  Carolina.  No  one  realized,  however,  better 
than  Booker  Washington  that  the  effort  was  by  no  means 
in  vain.  Owing  to  the  general  awakening  of  intelligent 
public  opinion  the  convention  leaders  were  forced  into 
the  position  of  driving  through  the  discriminatory  amend- 
ment not  only  in  the  face  of  the  condemnation  of  the  better 
element  throughout  the  country  but  even  with  the  dis- 
approval of  the  better  and  leading  citizens  of  their  own 
State. 

Shortly  afterward  members  of  the  Georgia  Legislature, 
seeking  political  preferment  for  themselves  through  the 
familiar  means  of  anti-Negro  agitation,  introduced  a  bill 
which  aimed  to  discriminate  against  the  Negroes  of 
90 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

Georgia  by  legislative  enactment  just  as  the  Negroes  of 
Louisiana  had  been  discriminated  against  by  a  constitu- 
tional amendment.  This  time  Mr.  Washington  went 
personally  to  Atlanta  and  appealed  directly  to  a  number 
of  the  members  of  the  Legislature  and  to  the  editors  of 
the  leading  papers  in  opposition  to  this  bill.  In  an  inter- 
view published  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution  at  the  time  he 
said: 

"I  cannot  think  that  there  is  any  large  number  of  white 
people  in  the  South  who  are  so  ignorant  or  so  poor  that 
they  cannot  get  education  and  property  enough  to  enable 
them  to  stand  the  test  by  the  side  of  the  Negro  in  these 
respects.  I  do  not  believe  that  these  white  people  want 
it  continually  advertised  to  the  world  that  some  special 
law  must  be  passed  by  which  they  will  seem  to  be  given 
an  unfair  advantage  over  the  Negro  by  reason  of  their 
ignorance  or  their  poverty.  It  is  unfair  to  blame  the 
Negro  for  not  preparing  himself  for  citizenship  by  acquir- 
ing intelligence,  and  then  when  he  does  get  education  and 
property,  to  pass  a  law  that  can  be  so  operated  as  to  pre- 
vent him  from  being  a  citizen,  even  though  he  may  be  a 
large  taxpayer.  The  Southern  white  people  have  reached 
the  point  where  they  can  afford  to  be  just  and  generous; 
where  there  will  be  nothing  to  hide  and  nothing  to  explain. 
It  is  an  easy  matter,  requiring  little  thought,  generosity  or 
statesmanship  to  push  a  weak  man  down  when  he  is 
struggling  to  get  up.  Any  one  can  do  that.  Greatness, 
generosity,  statesmanship  are  shown  in  stimulating,  en- 
couraging every  individual  in  the  body  politic  to  make  of 

9i 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

himself  the  most  useful,  intelligent,  and  patriotic  citizen 
possible.  Take  from  the  Negro  all  incentive  to  make  him- 
self and  his  children  useful  property-holding  citizens,  and 
can  any  one  blame  him  for  becoming  a  beast  capable  of 
committing  any  crime  ? " 

This  time  the  immediate  object  was  attained.  The 
Atlanta  Constitution  and  other  leading  Georgia  papers 
indorsed  Booker  Washington's  appeal  and  the  Legislature 
voted  down  its  anti-Negro  members.  Be  it  said  to  the 
credit  of  the  Georgia  Legislature  that  it  has  resisted  several 
similar  attempts  to  discriminate  against  the  Negro  citi- 
zens of  the  State,  and  it  was  not  till  1908,  ten  years  after 
the  Louisiana  law  was  passed,  that  Georgia  finally  passed 
a  law  disfranchising  Negro  voters. 

Booker  Washington  has  been  accused  of  not  protesting 
against  the  lynching  of  Negroes.  In  the  article  published 
in  the  Century  Magazine  in  191 2,  from  which  we  have 
previously  quoted,  he  said  on  this  subject:  "When  he  was 
Governor  of  Alabama,  I  heard  Governor  Jelks  say  in  a 
public  speech  that  he  knew  of  five  cases  during  his  admin- 
istration of  innocent  colored  people  having  been  lynched. 
If  that  many  innocent  people  were  known  to  the  governor 
to  have  been  lynched,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  were 
other  innocent  persons  lynched  whom  the  governor  did 
not  know  about.  What  is  true  of  Alabama  in  this  respect 
is  true  of  other  states.  In  short,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  colored  persons  lynched  are  inno- 
cent. .  .  .  Not  a  few  cases  have  occurred  where 
white  people  have  blackened  their  faces  and  committed 
92 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

a  crime,  knowing  that  some  Negro  would  be  suspected 
and  mobbed  for  it.  In  other  cases  it  is  known  that  where 
Negroes  have  committed  crimes,  innocent  men  have  been 
lynched  and  the  guilty  ones  have  escaped  and  gone  on 
committing  more  crimes. 

"Within  the  last  twelve  months  there  have  been  seventy- 
one  cases  of  lynching,  nearly  all  of  colored  people.  Only 
seventeen  were  charged  with  the  crime  of  rape.  Perhaps 
they  are  wrong  to  do  so,  but  colored  people  do  not  feel 
that  innocence  offers  them  security  against  lynching. 
They  do  feel,  however,  that  the  lynching  habit  tends  to 
give  greater  security  to  the  criminal,  white  or  black." 

Mr.  Washington  often  pointed  out  how  the  lynching 
of  blacks  leads  inevitably  to  the  lynching  of  whites  and 
how  the  lynching  of  guilty  persons  of  either  race  inevitably 
leads  to  the  lynching  of  innocent  persons  of  both  races. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  Booker  Washington  con- 
fined his  condemnation  of  lynching  to  the  comparatively 
safe  cover  of  the  pages  of  an  eminently  respectable  North- 
ern magazine.  Some  years  ago  when  he  was  on  a  speaking 
trip  in  the  State  of  Florida  two  depraved  Negroes  in  Jack- 
sonville committed  an  atrocious  murder.  The  crime 
aroused  such  intense  race  feeling  that  Mr.  Washington's 
friends  foresaw  the  likelihood  of  a  lynching  and,  fearing 
for  his  safety,  urged  him  to  cancel  his  engagements  in 
Jacksonville,  where  he  was  due  to  speak  before  white  as 
well  as  black  audiences  within  a  few  days.  This  he  re- 
fused to  do  and  insisted  that  because  there  was  special 
racial  friction  it  was  especially  necessary  that  he  should 

93 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

keep  his  engagements  in  the  city.  While  he  was  driving 
to  the  hall  where  he  was  to  address  a  white  audience  the 
automobile  of  one  of  his  Negro  escorts  was  stopped  by  a 
crowd  of  excited  white  men  who  angrily  demanded  that 
Booker  Washington  be  handed  over  to  them.  When 
they  found  he  was  not  in  the  car  they  allowed  it  to  pass 
on  without  molesting  the  Negro  occupant,  who  enjoyed 
to  an  unusual  degree  the  confidence  and  respect  of  both 
races  in  the  city.  What  they  would  have  done  had  they 
found  Booker  Washington  one  may  only  conjecture.  At 
about  the  same  time  the  Negro  murderers  were  captured. 
The  howls  of  the  infuriated  mob  on  its  way  to  the  jail  to 
lynch  the  accused  murderers  could  be  heard  in  the  distance 
from  the  hall  where  Mr.  Washington  spoke.  Without 
referring  in  any  way  to  the  event  which  was  taking  place 
at  the  time  Mr.  Washington,  to  the  alarm  of  his  friends, 
launched  into  a  fervid  denunciation  of  lynching  and  ended 
with  an  earnest  and  eloquent  appeal  for  better  feeling 
between  the  races.  Instead  of  his  words  breaking  up  the 
meeting  in  a  storm  of  anger  and  rioting,  this  audience 
composed  of  Southern  whites  and  colored  people  vigor- 
ously applauded  his  sentiments.  Undoubtedly  they  were 
applauding  not  so  much  the  views  expressed  as  the  cour- 
age shown  in  expressing  them  at  that  place  and  under 
those  circumstances. 

A  somewhat  similar  experience  occurred  on  a  recent 
speaking  tour  which  he  and  a  party  were  making  through 
the  State  of  Louisiana.  He  was  accompanied  by  a  com- 
pany of  Negro  leaders,  including  Major  Moton  of  Hamp- 

94 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

ton,  who  has  since  become  his  successor  as  Principal  of 
Tuskegee  Institute.  They  were  in  a  portion  of  the  State 
notorious  for  its  lynchings  of  Negroes.  No  one  who  has 
ever  seen  Major  Moton,  or  knows  anything  about  him, 
would  think  of  accusing  him  of  timidity  or  cowardice. 
But  when  they  went  before  a  white  audience  in  this  par- 
ticular district  he  urged  Mr.  Washington  as  a  matter  of 
common  prudence  to  "soft  pedal"  what  he  had  to  say 
about  lynching.  Just  as  in  Jacksonville  Mr.  Washington 
did  just  the  opposite,  and  made  his  denunciation  particu- 
larly emphatic,  and  just  as  in  Jacksonville  there  was  the 
same  applause  and  apparent  approval  of  his  views. 

Booker  Washington  also  protested  that  in  the  matter  of 
public  education  his  people  are  not  given  a  square  deal  in 
parts  of  the  South,  particularly  in  the  country  districts. 
He  continually  emphasized  the  relation  between  education 
and  crime.  Other  things  being  equal  the  more  and  the 
better  the  education  provided  the  less  the  number  and 
seriousness  of  the  crimes  committed.  Also  he  pointed  out 
that  the  neglect  of  Negro  school  facilities  injures  the  white 
citizens  almost  if  not  quite  as  much  as  the  Negroes  them- 
selves. And  conversely  that  good  school  facilities  for  the 
colored  children  benefit  the  whites  almost  as  much  as  the 
Negroes.  He  also  insisted  that  quite  aside  from  all  moral 
and  ethical  considerations  Negro  education  pays  in  dollars 
and  cents.  As  illustrating  the  relation  between  Negro 
education  and  crime  or  rather  lack  of  Negro  education  and 
crime  he  related  this  incident  in  an  article  entitled,  "Black 
and  White  in  the  South"  published  in  the  Outlook  of  March 

95 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

14,  1914:  "A  few  weeks  ago  three  of  the  most  prominent 
white  men  in  Mississippi  were  shot  and  killed  by  two 
colored  boys.  Investigation  brought  to  light  that  the  two 
boys  were  rough  and  crude,  that  they  had  never  been  to 
school,  hence  that  they  were  densely  ignorant.  While  no 
one  had  taught  these  boys  the  use  of  books,  some  one  had 
taught  them,  as  mere  children,  the  use  of  cocaine  and 
whiskey.  In  a  mad  fit,  when  their  minds  and  bodies  were 
filled  with  cheap  whiskey  and  cocaine,  these  two  ignorant 
boys  created  a  'reign  of  murder,'  in  the  course  of  which 
three  white  men,  four  colored  men,  and  one  colored  woman 
met  death.  As  soon  as  the  shooting  was  over  a  crazed 
mob  shot  the  two  boys  full  of  bullet-holes  and  then  burned 
their  bodies  in  the  public  streets. 

"Now  this  is  the  kind  of  thing,  more  or  less  varied  in 
form,  that  takes  place  too  often  in  our  country.  WThy? 
The  answer  is  simple:  it  is  dense  ignorance  on  the  part  of 
the  Negro  and  indifference  arising  out  of  a  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  on  the  part  of  the  white  people." 

He  then  pointed  out  that  the  last  enumeration  in 
Mississippi,  where  this  crime  was  committed,  indicated 
that  64  per  cent,  of  the  colored  children  had  had  no  school- 
ing during  the  past  year.  That  in  Charleston  County, 
South  Carolina,  another  backward  State  in  Negro  educa- 
tion, there  was  expended  on  the  public  education  of  each 
white  child  $20.2;  for  the  colored  child  $3.12;  in  Abbe- 
ville County  $11.17  f°r  tfte  white,  69  cents  for  the  colored 
child.  This  69  cents  per  capita  expense  was  incurred  by 
maintaining  a  one-room  school  for  two  and  one-half 
96 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

months,  with  a  teacher  paid  at  the  rate  of  #15  a  month. 
In  another  county  the  Negro  school  was  in  session  but  one 
month  out  of  the  twelve.  Throughout  the  State,  outside 
the  cities  and  large  towns,  the  school  term  for  the  colored 
children  is  from  two  to  four  months.  Thus  200,000 
colored  children  in  South  Carolina  are  given  only  three  or 
four  months  of  schooling  a  year.  "Under  these  conditions 
it  would  require  twenty-eight  years  for  a  child  to  complete 
the  eight  grades  of  the  public  school.  .  .  .  But  South 
Carolina  is  by  no  means  the  only  State  that  has  these 
breeding  spots  for  ignorance,  crime,  and  filth  which  the 
nation  will  sooner  or  later  have  to  reckon  with." 

In  the  article  in  the  Century  Magazine  from  which 
quotations  have  already  been  made  Mr.  Washington 
cites  this  statement  made  by  W.  N.  Sheats,  former 
Superintendent  of  Education  for  the  State  of  Florida,  in 
explanation  of  an  analysis  of  the  sources  of  the  school  fund 
of  the  State:  "A  glance  at  the  foregoing  statistics  in- 
dicates that  the  section  of  the  State  designated  as  'Middle 
Florida'  is  considerably  behind  all  the  rest  in  all  stages  of 
educational  progress.  The  usual  plea  is  that  this  is  due 
to  the  intolerable  burden  of  Negro  education,  and  a  gen- 
eral discouragement  and  inactivity  is  ascribed  to  this 
cause.  The  following  figures  are  given  to  show  that  the 
education  of  the  Negroes  of  Middle  Florida  does  not  cost 
the  white  people  of  that  section  one  cent.  Without  dis- 
cussing the  American  principle  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
property  to  educate  every  citizen  as  a  means  of  protection 
to  the  State,  and  with  no  reference  to  what  taxes  that 

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BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

citizen  may  pay,  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  paragraph  to  show 
that  the  backwardness  of  education  of  the  white  people  is 
in  no  degree  due  to  the  presence  of  the  Negro,  but  that  the 
presence  of  the  Negro  has  been  actually  contributing  to  the 
sustenance  of  the  white  schools." 

Mr.  Sheats  then  shows  that  the  cost  of  the  Negro  schools 
was  #19,467,  while  the  Negroes  contributed  to  the  school 
fund  in  direct  taxes,  together  with  their  proper  proportion 
of  the  indirect  taxes,  #23,984.  He  concludes:  "Ifthisisa 
fair  calculation  the  schools  for  the  Negroes  are  not  onlyjio 
burden  on  the  white  citizens,  but  #4,525  for  Negro  schools 
contributed  from  other  sources  was  in  some  way  diverted 
to  the  white  schools." 

Mr.  Charles  L.  Coon,  Superintendent  of  Schools  at  Wil- 
son, N.  C,  is  quoted  as  demonstrating  that  had  there  been 
expended  upon  the  Negro  schools  the  Negro's  proportion- 
ate share  of  the  receipts  from  indirect  taxes,  as  well  as  the 
direct  taxes  paid  by  them,  #18,077  more  in  a  given  year 
would  have  been  expended  on  colored  schools  in  Virginia, 
#26,539  more  in  North  Carolina,  and  #141,682  more  in 
Georgia.  These  figures  would  seem  to  show  that  in  these 
States  at  least  the  Negro  schools  are  not  only  no  burden 
upon  the  white  taxpayers  but  that  the  colored  people  do 
not  get  back  in  school  facilities  the  equivalent  of  all  they 
themselves  contribute  in  taxes. 

In  the  matter  of  passenger  transportation  facilities 
Booker  Washington  protested  that  injustice  is  done  his 
people  by  most  of  the  railroads  of  the  South,  not  in  provid- 
ing separate  accommodations  for  blacks  and  whites,  but  in 
98 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

furnishing  the  Negroes  with  inferior  accommodations  while 
charging  them  the  same  rates.  This  injustice  causes, 
he  believes,  more  resentment  and  bitterness  among  his 
people  than  all  the  other  injustices  to  which  they  are  sub- 
jected combined.  The  Negro  or  "Jim  Crow"  compart- 
ment is  usually  half  of  the  baggage  car  which  is  usually 
inadequate  for  the  traffic,  badly  lighted,  badly  ventilated, 
and  dirty.  The  newsdealer  of  the  train  uses  this  coach  and 
increases  the  congestion  by  spreading  his  wares  over  sev- 
eral seats.  White  men  frequently  enter  this  compartment 
to  buy  papers  and  almost  always  smoke  in  it,  thus  requiring 
the  colored'  women  to  ride  in  what  is  virtually  a  smoker. 
Aside  from  these  matters  the  Negroes  rarely  have  through 
cars  and  no  sleeping,  parlor,  or  buffet  cars,  and  frequently 
no  means  of  securing  food  on  long  journeys  since  many  if 
not  most  of  the  station  restaurants  refuse  to  serve  them. 
In  the  Century  article  Mr.  Washington  thus  quoted  the 
experience  of  a  sensible  and  conservative  Negro  friend  of 
his  from  Austin,  Texas — a  man  of  education  and  good 
reputation  among  both  races  in  his  native  city:  "At  one 
time,"  he  said,  in  describing  some  of  his  travelling  ex- 
periences, "I  got  off  at  a  station  almost  starved.  I  begged 
the  keeper  of  the  restaurant  to  sell  me  a  lunch  in  a  paper  and 
hand  it  out  of  the  window.  He  refused,  and  I  had  to 
travel  a  hundred  miles  farther  before  I  could  get  a  sand- 
wich. At  another  time  I  went  to  a  station  to  purchase  my 
ticket.  I  was  there  thirty  minutes  before  the  ticket  office 
was  opened.  When  it  did  finally  open  I  at  once  appeared 
at  the  window.     While  the  ticket  agent  served  the  white 

99 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

people  at  one  window,  I  remained  waiting  at  the  other 
until  the  train  pulled  out.  I  was  compelled  to  jump 
aboard  the  train  without  my  ticket  and  wire  back  to  get 
my  trunk  expressed.  Considering  the  temper  of  the 
people,  the  separate  coach  law  may  be  the  wisest  plan  for 
the  South,  but  the  statement  that  the  two  races  have  equal 
accommodations  is  all  bosh.  I  pay  the  same  money,  but  I 
cannot  have  a  chair  or  a  lavatory,  and  rarely  a  through 
car.  I  must  crawl  out  at  all  times  of  night,  and  in  all 
kinds  of  weather,  in  order  to  catch  another  dirty  'Jim 
Crow*  coach  to  make  my  connections.  I  do  not  ask  to 
ride  with  white  people.  I  do  ask  for  equal  accommoda- 
tions for  the  same  money." 

Booker  Washington  was  of  course  obliged  to  travel  in  the 
South  almost  constantly  and  to  a  great  extent  at  night.  He 
nearly  always  travelled  on  a  Pullman  car,  and  so  when  not 
an  interstate  passenger  usually  "violated"  the  law  of 
whatever  State  he  happened  to  be  passing  through.  The 
conductors,  brakemen,  and  other  trainmen,  as  a  rule, 
treated  him  with  great  respect  and  consideration  and  often- 
times offered  him  a  compartment  in  place  of  the  berth 
which  he  had  purchased. 

Pullman  cars  in  the  South  are  not  as  a  rule  open  to  mem- 
bers of  the  Negro  race.  It  is  only  under  more  or  less 
unusual  conditions  that  a  black  man  is  able  to  secure  Pull- 
man accommodations.  Dr.  Washington,  however,  was 
generally  treated  with  marked  consideration  whenever  he 
applied  for  Pullman  car  reservations.  He  was  sometimes 
criticised,  not  only  by  members  of  his  own  race,  but  by  the 
ioo 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

unthinking  of  the  white  race  who  accused  him  of  thus  seek- 
ing "social  equality"  with  the  white  passengers. 

The  work  he  was  compelled  to  do,  however,  in  con- 
stantly travelling  from  place  to  place,  and  dictating  letters 
while  travelling,  made  it  necessary  that  he  conserve  his 
strength  as  much  as  possible.  He  never  believed  that  he 
was  defying  Southern  traditions  in  seeking  the  comfort 
essential  to  his  work. 

Upon  one  occasion  Dr.  Washington  went  to  Houston, 
Texas,  and  was  invited  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Cotton 
Exchange,  in  the  name  of  the  Exchange,  to  speak  to  the 
members  of  the  leading  business  organizations  of  Houston, 
upon  the  floor  of  the  Cotton  Exchange  Bank.  He  was  in- 
troduced by  the  secretary,  who  desired  to  give  Dr.  Wash- 
ington the  opportunity  to  put  before  representative 
Southern  white  men  the  thoughts  and  ideas  of  a  representa- 
tive colored  man  as  to  how  the  two  races  might  live  to- 
gether in  the  South  on  terms  of  mutual  helpfulness.  Such 
was  the  impression  he  made  upon  the  whites  that  when 
Dr.  Washington's  secretary  applied  for  Pullman  accom- 
modations for  him,  returning  East,  they  were  not  only  un- 
grudgingly but  even  eagerly  granted.  In  those  days  it 
was  unheard  of  for  a  colored  man  to  travel  as  a  passenger  in 
a  Pullman  car  in  Texas. 

The  injustices  mentioned  and  all  others  connected  with 
railway  passenger  service  for  Negroes  Booker  Washington 
sought  in  characteristic  fashion  to  mitigate  by  instituting, 
through  the  agency  of  the  National  Negro  Business  League, 
what  are  known  as  Railroad  Days.     On  these  days  each 

IOI 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

year  colored  patrons  of  railroads  lay  before  the  responsible 
officials  the  respects  in  which  they  believe  they  are  un- 
fairly treated  and  request  certain  definite  changes.  Al- 
though started  only  a  few  years  ago  these  Railroad  Days 
have  already  accomplished  a  number  of  the  improvements 
desired  in  various  localities. 

As  an  aid  to  the  committees  appointed  in  the  various 
communities  Mr.  Washington  sent  out  a  letter  addressed 
to  these  committees  which  was  published  in  the  Negro 
papers.  This  letter  advised  that  all  protests  on  Railroad 
Days  give:  first,  "a  statement  of  present  conditions," 
second,  "a  statement  of  conditions  desired."  There  fol- 
lowed a  sample  detailed  statement  of  the  present  conditions 
about  which  there  is  usually  cause  for  complaint  accom- 
panied by  a  similar  statement  of  the  conditions  desired. 

It  was  then  suggested  that  these  specific  recommenda- 
tions be  followed  by  these  general  requests: 

"i.  The  same  class  and  quality  of  accommodations  for 
colored  passengers  as  are  provided  for  the  most  favored 
class  of  travellers. 

"2.  Such  regulations  as  will  protect  colored  passengers 
from  the  rudeness  and  insults  of  employees  of  the  railroad. 

"3.  Some  definite  authority  to  whom  these  matters 
may  be  referred,  where  friction  arises,  and  who  will,  in 
good  faith,  investigate  and  adjust  them." 

The  letter  concluded  with  this  advice: 

"All  those  who  are  going  to  act  on  the  suggestions  to 
make  a  united  effort  to  bring  about  better  railroad  and 
other  travelling  facilities  should  not  omit  to  remind  our 
102 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

people  that  they  have  a  duty  to  perform  as  well  as  the 
railroads. 

"First,  our  people  should  try  to  keep  themselves  clean 
and  presentable  when  travelling,  and  they  should  do  their 
duty  in  trying  to  keep  waiting-rooms  and  railroad  coaches 
clean. 

"Second,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  little  or  noth- 
ing will  be  accomplished  by  merely  talking  about  white 
people  who  are  in  charge  of  railroads,  etc.  The  only  way 
to  get  any  results  is  to  go  to  the  people  and  talk  to  them 
and  not  about  them." 

Compare  this  definite,  reasonable,  and  effective  form  of 
protest  with  the  bitter,  vague,  and  futile  outcry  against 
the  "Jim  Crow"  car  which  is  frequently  heard. 

Booker  Washington  sent  a  marked  copy  of  the  Century 
Magazine  containing  the  article,  "Is  the  Negro  Having  a 
Fair  Chance?"  to  the  head  of  every  railroad  in  the  South 
calling  attention  to  the  portion  relating  to  unfair  treat- 
ment in  passenger  service  for  his  people.  In  response  he 
received  letters  which  in  almost  every  case  were  friendly 
and  in  many  cases  showed  an  active  desire  to  cooperate 
in  the  improvement  of  the  conditions  complained  of. 
Mr.  Washington  published  extracts  from  these  letters  in 
the  Negro  press  prior  to  his  Railroad  Day  proposal  in  order 
to  show  that  the  railroad  officials  were  for  the  most  part 
at  least  willing  to  give  a  respectful  hearing  to  the  com- 
plaints of  their  Negro  patrons  if  properly  approached. 
President  Stevens  of  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Railway 
Company  wrote  that  he  had  had  one  hundred  copies  of  the 

103 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

article  distributed  among  the  officials  and  employees  of 
his  road.  Mr.  J.  M.  Parker,  Receiver  and  General  Mana- 
ger of  the  Arkansas,  Louisiana  &  Gulf  Railway  Company, 
wrote:  "I  have  your  favor  with  enclosure  ...  I 
shall  take  pleasure  in  reading  this  article,  and  from  glanc- 
ing through  it  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  statement 
that  the  Negro  is  not  getting  a  square  deal  in  the  way  of 
transportation  facilities  is  well  founded."  Mr.  William 
J.  Black,  Passenger  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Sante  Fe 
Railway  System,  wrote  in  part:  "You  will,  no  doubt,  be 
pleased  to  learn  that  the  Santa  Fe  has  already  provided 
equipment  for  colored  travel  in  conformity  with  the  plan 
outlined  in  your  article. "  From  all  or  most  of  the  South- 
ern railways  came  letters  of  the  general  tenor  of  those 
quoted,  and  thus  was  the  way  prepared  for  the  successful 
inauguration  of  the  Railroad  Days. 

Constantly  as  he  labored  for  the  rights  of  his  people  he 
never  sought  to  obtain  for  them  any  special  privileges. 
Unlike  most  leaders  of  groups,  classes,  or  races  of  people 
he  never  sought  any  exclusive  or  special  advantages  for  his 
followers.  He  did  not  want  the  Negro  to  receive  any 
favors  by  reason  of  his  race  any  more  than  he  wanted  him 
to  be  discriminated  against  on  that  account.  He  wanted 
all  human  beings,  Negroes  among  the  rest,  to  receive  their 
deserts  as  individuals  regardless  of  their  race,  color,  religion, 
sex,  or  any  other  consideration  which  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  individual's  merits.  One  of  his  favorite  figures 
was  that  "one  cannot  hold  another  in  a  ditch  without 
himself  staying  in  the  ditch."  There  is  not  a  single  right 
104 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

for  which  he  contended  for  his  people  which  if  won  would 
not  directly  or  indirectly  benefit  all  other  people.  Were 
they  in  all  the  States  admitted  to  the  franchise  on  equal 
terms  with  white  citizens  what  Mr.  Washington  termed 
the  "encouragement  of  vice  and  ignorance  among  white 
citizens"  would  cease. 

Were  the  lynching  of  Negroes  stopped  the  lynching  of 
white  men  would  also  cease.  Both  the  innocent  black 
man  and  the  innocent  white  man  would  feel  a  greater  sense 
of  security  while  the  guilty  black  man  as  well  as  the  guilty 
white  man  would  be  less  secure.  Were  the  Negroes  given 
their  full  share  of  public  education  the  whites  would  gain 
not  only  more  reliable  and  intelligent  Negro  labor,  but 
would  be  largely  freed  so  far  as  Negroes  are  concerned 
from  the  menace  of  the  crimes  of  violence  which  are  com- 
mitted almost  exclusively  by  ignorant  persons.  Finally, 
were  Negro  travellers  given  equal  accommodations  and 
treatment  for  equal  rates  on  all  the  Southern  railways  the 
volume  of  Negro  travel  would  more  rapidly  increase,  thus 
increasing  the  prosperity  of  the  railways  and  their  share- 
holders which  would  in  turn  promote  the  prosperity  of  the 
entire  South. 

True  to  his  policy  of  always  placing  the  emphasis  upon 
those  things  which  are  encouraging  instead  of  upon  those 
things  which  are  discouraging,  Mr.  Washington  concluded 
the  already  much-quoted  article,  "Is  the  Negro  Having  a 
Fair  Chance ?  with  these  observations :  "Notwithstanding 
all  the  defects  in  our  system  of  dealing  with  him,  the  Negro 
in  this  country  owns  more  property,  lives  in  better  houses, 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

is  in  a  larger  measure  encouraged  in  business,  wears  better 
clothes,  eats  better  food,  has  more  schoolhouses  and 
churches,  and  more  teachers  and  ministers,  than  any 
similar  group  of  Negroes  anywhere  in  the  world." 


106 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

MEETING    RACE    PREJUDICE 

ALTHOUGH  intensely  human  and  consumingly  inter- 
ested in  humanity — both  in  the  mass  and  as  individ- 
uals, whether  of  his  own  race  or  any  other — Booker 
Washington  thought  and  acted  to  an  uncommon  degree 
on  the  impersonal  plane.  This  characteristic  was  per- 
haps most  strikingly  illustrated  in  his  attitude  toward 
race  prejudice.  When,  many  years  ago,  he  had  charge 
of  the  Indian  students  at  Hampton,  and  had  occasion  to 
travel  with  them,  he  found  they  were  free  to  occupy  in  the 
hotels  any  rooms  they  could  pay  for,  whereas  he  must 
either  go  without  or  take  a  room  in  the  servants'  quarters. 
He  regarded  these  experiences  as  interesting  illustrations 
of  the  illogical  nature  of  race  prejudice.  The  occupants  of 
these  hotels  did  not  resent  mingling  with  members  of  a 
backward  race  whose  skin  happened  to  be  red,  but  they 
did  object  to  mingling  on  the  same  terms  with  members  of 
another  backward  race  whose  skin  happened  to  be  black. 
It  apparently  never  entered  his  head  to  regard  this  dis- 
crimination with  bitterness  or  as  a  personal  rebuff.  One 
could  not,  however,  make  a  greater  mistake  than  to  assume 
from  this  impersonal  attitude  that  he  condoned  race  prej- 
udice, or  in  any  sense  stood  as  an  apologist  for  it.     To 

107 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

dispel  any  such  idea  one  has  only  to  recall  his  speech  at  the 
Peace  Jubilee  in  Chicago  after  the  Spanish  War,  from 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  and  in  which  he  character- 
ized racial  prejudice  as  "a  cancer  gnawing  at  the  heart  of 
the  Republic,  that  shall  one  day  prove  as  dangerous  as  an 
attack  from  an  army  without  or  within. "* 

Very  early  in  his  career  Washington  worked  out  for 
himself  a  perfectly  definite  line  of  conduct  in  the  matter  of 
social  mingling  with  white  people.  In  the  South  he  scru- 
pulously observed  the  local  customs  and  avoided  offending 
the  prejudices  of  the  Southerners  in  so  far  as  was  possible 
without  unduly  handicapping  his  work.  For  instance,  in 
his  constant  travelling  throughout  the  South  he  not  only 
violated  their  customs,  but  oftentimes  their  laws,  in  using 
sleeping  cars,  but  this  he  was  obliged  to  do  because  he 
could  spare  neither  the  time  to  travel  by  day  nor  the 
strength  and  energy  to  sit  up  all  night.  This  particular 
Southern  prejudice  and  the  laws  predicated  upon  it  he  was 
hence  forced  to  violate,  but  he  did  so  as  a  physical  necessity 
to  the  accomplishment  of  his  work  and  not  in  any  sense  as  a 
defiance  of  custom  or  law.  While  in  the  South  he  ob- 
served Southern  customs  and  bowed  to  Southern  prejudices, 
but  he  declined  to  be  bound  by  such  customs,  laws,  and 
prejudices  when  in  other  parts  of  this  country  or  the 
world.  Except  in  the  South  he  allowed  himself  whatever 
degree  of  social  intercourse  with  the  whites  seemed  best 
calculated  to  accomplish  his  immediate  object  and  his  ulti- 
mate aims.  He  never  accepted  purely  social  invitations 
from  white  persons.  He  always  claimed  that  he  could  best 
108 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

satisfy  his  social  desires  among  his  own  people.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  question  of  so-called  "social  equality"  be- 
tween the  races  was  too  academic  and  meaningless  to  be 
worthy  of  serious  discussion. 

Probably  he  never  made  a  more  well-considered  or  il- 
luminating statement  of  his  personal  attitude  toward 
social  intercourse  with  the  dominant  race  than  in  a  letter 
to  the  late  Edgar  Gardiner  Murphy,  a  Southerner  "of 
light  and  leading,"  author  of  "The  Present  South,"  "The 
Basis  of  Ascendancy,"  and  other  notable  books  on  the 
relations  between  the  races.  Mr.  Murphy,  as  a  South- 
erner, became  alarmed  at  the  attacks  upon  Booker  Wash- 
ington by  certain  Southern  newspapers  and  public  men 
because  of  his  appearance  at  so-called  social  functions 
in  the  North.  Mr.  Murphy,  rightly  regarding  the  reten- 
tion of  the  favorable  opinion  of  representative  Southern 
whites  as  essential  to  the  success  of  Washington's  work, 
very  naturally  feared  any  course  of  action  which  seemed 
to  threaten  the  continuance  of  that  favorable  opinion. 
In  response  to  a  letter  in  which  Mr.  Murphy  expressed 
these  fears  and  asked  for  an  opportunity  to  discuss  the 
situation  with  him  Mr.  Washington  replied  as  follows : 

[Personal] 

My  Dear  Sir:  I  have  received  your  kind  letter,  for 
which  I  thank  you  very  much.  I  was  very  much  disap- 
pointed that  I  did  not  have  an  opportunity  of  meeting  you, 
as  I  had  planned  the  other  day,  so  as  not  to  be  so  hurried 
in  talking  with  you  as  I  usually  am.  I  shall  be  very  glad, 
however,  the  very  first  time  I  can  find  another  spare  hour 

109 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

when  in  New  York  (Mr.  Murphy  was  then  living  in  New 
York  City)  to  have  you  talk  with  me  fully  and  frankly 
about  the  matters  that  are  in  your  mind. 

However  we  may  differ  in  our  view  regarding  certain 
matters,  there  is  no  man  in  the  country  whose  frankness, 
earnestness,  and  sincere  disinterestedness  I  respect  more 
than  yours,  and  whatever  you  say  always  has  great  weight 
with  me. 

Your  letter  emphasizes  the  tremendous  difficulty  of 
the  work  at  the  South.  In  most  cases,  and  in  most  coun- 
tries where  a  large  section  of  the  people  are  down,  and 
are  to  be  helped  up,  those  attempting  to  do  the  work 
have  before  them  a  straight,  simple  problem  of  elevating 
the  unfortunate  people  without  the  entanglement  of  racial 
prejudice  to  be  grappled  with.  I  think  I  do  not  exag- 
gerate when  I  say  that  perhaps  a  third  or  half  of  the 
thought  and  energy  of  those  engaged  in  the  elevation  of 
the  colored  people  is  given  in  the  direction  of  trying  to  do 
the  thing  or  not  doing  the  thing  which  would  enhance 
racial  prejudice.  This  feature  of  the  situation  I  believe 
very  few  people  at  the  North  or  at  the  South  appreciate. 
What  is  true  of  the  Negro  educator  is  true  in  a  smaller 
degree  of  the  white  educator  at  the  South.  I  am  con- 
stantly trying,  as  best  I  can,  to  study  the  situation  as 
it  is  right  here  on  the  ground,  and  I  may  be  mistaken, 
but  aside  from  the  wild  and  demagogical  talk  on  the  part 
of  a  few  I  am  unable  to  discover  much  or  any  change  in 
the  attitude  of  the  best  white  people  toward  the  best 
colored  people.  So  far  as  my  own  individual  experience 
and  observation  are  concerned,  I  am  treated  about  the 
same  as  I  have  always  been.  I  was  in  Athens,  Georgia, 
a  few  days  ago,  to  deliver  an  address  before  the  colored 
people  at  the  State  Fair,  and  the  meeting  was  attended 
by   the    best    class    of   whites    and    the    best    class    of 

no 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

colored  people,  who  seemed  to  be  pleased  over  what  I 
said. 

Mr.  Blank,  a  Southern  Congressman,  just  now  is  making  a 
good  deal  of  noise,  but  you  will  recall  that  Mr.  Blank  spoke 
just  as  bitterly  against  me  before  Mr.  Roosevelt  became 
President  as  he  has  since.  I  do  not  want  to  permit  myself 
to  be  misled,  but  I  repeat  that  I  cannot  see  or  feel  that  any 
great  alienation  has  taken  place  between  the  two  classes 
of  people  that  you  refer  to. 

For  the  sake  of  argument  I  want  to  grant  for  the  moment 
a  thing  which  I  have  never  done  before,  even  in  a  private 
letter,  and  which  is  very  distasteful  to  me,  and  that  is, 
that  I  am  the  leader  of  the  colored  people.  Do  you  think 
it  will  ever  be  possible  for  one  man  to  be  set  up  as  the 
leader  of  ten  millions  of  people,  meaning  a  population 
nearly  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
and  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  with- 
out the  actions  of  that  individual  being  carefully  watched 
and  commented  upon,  and  what  he  does  being  exaggerated 
either  in  one  direction  or  the  other?  Again,  if  I  am  the 
leader  and  therefore  the  mouthpiece  for  ten  millions  of 
colored  people,  is  it  possible  for  such  a  leader  to  avoid 
coming  into  contact  with  the  representatives  of  the  ruling 
classes  of  white  people  upon  many  occasions;  and  is  it 
not  to  be  expected  that  when  questions  that  are  racial 
and  national  and  international  in  their  character  are  to 
be  discussed,  that  such  a  representative  of  the  Negro 
race  would  be  sought  out  both  by  individuals  and  by 
conventions?  If,  as  you  kindly  suggest,  I  am  the  leader, 
I  hardly  see  how  such  notoriety  and  prominence  as  will 
naturally  come  can  be  wholly  or  in  any  large  degree 
avoided. 

Judging  by  some  of  the  criticisms  that  have  appeared 
recently,  mainly  from  the  class  of  people  to  whom  I  have 

in 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

referred,  it  seems  to  me  that  some  of  the  white  people  at 
the  South  are  making  an  attempt  to  control  my  actions 
when  I  am  in  the  North  and  in  Europe.  Heretofore, 
no  man  has  been  more  careful  to  regard  the  feelings  of 
the  Southern  people  in  actions  and  words  than  I  have 
been,  and  this  policy  I  shall  continue  to  pursue,  but  I 
have  never  attempted  to  hide  or  to  minimize  the  fact 
that  when  I  am  out  of  the  South  I  do  not  conform  to 
the  same  customs  and  rules  that  I  do  in  the  South.  I 
say  I  have  not  attempted  to  hide  it  because  everything 
that  I  have  done  in  this  respect  was  published  four  years 
ago  in  my  book,  "Up  from  Slavery,"  which  has  been 
read  widely  throughout  the  South,  and  I  did  not  hear  a 
word  of  adverse  criticism  passed  upon  what  I  had  done. 
For  fifteen  years  I  have  been  doing  at  the  North  just 
what  I  have  been  doing  during  the  past  year.  I  have 
never  attended  a  purely  social  function  given  by  white 
people  anywhere  in  the  country.  Nearly  every  week  I 
receive  invitations  to  weddings  of  rich  people,  but  these 
I  always  refuse.  Mrs.  Washington  almost  never  accom- 
panies me  on  any  occasion  where  there  can  be  the  least 
sign  of  purely  social  intercourse.  Whenever  I  meet 
white  people  in  the  North  at  their  offices,  in  their  parlors, 
or  at  their  dinner  tables,  or  at  banquets,  it  is  with  me 
purely  a  matter  of  business,  either  in  the  interest  of  our 
institution  or  in  the  interest  of  my  race;  no  other  thought 
ever  enters  my  mind.  For  me  to  say  now,  after  fifteen 
years  of  creating  interest  in  my  race  and  in  this  institu- 
tion in  that  manner,  that  I  must  stop,  would  simply  mean 
that  I  must  cease  to  get  money  in  a  large  measure  for 
this  institution.  In  meeting  the  people  in  this  way  I 
am  simply  doing  what  the  head  of  practically  every  school, 
black  and  white,  in  the  South  is  constantly  doing.  For 
purely  social  pleasure  I  have  always  found  all  my  ambitions 

112 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

satisfied  among  my  own  people,  and  you  will  find  that  in 
proportion  as  the  colored  race  becomes  educated  and 
prosperous,  in  the  same  proportion  is  this  true  of  all 
colored  people. 

I  said  a  minute  ago  that  I  had  tried  to  be  careful  in 
regard  to  the  feelings  of  the  Southern  people.  It  has 
been  urged  upon  me  time  and  time  again  to  employ  a 
number  of  white  teachers  at  this  institution.  I  have 
not  done  so  and  do  not  intend  to  do  so,  largely  for  the 
reason  that  they  would  be  constantly  mingling  with 
each  other  at  the  table.  For  thirty  years  and  more,  in 
every  one  of  our  Southern  States,  white  and  colored  people 
have  sat  down  to  the  table  three  times  a  day  nearly  through- 
out the  year,  and  I  have  heard  very  little  criticism  passed 
upon  them.  This  kind  of  thing,  however,  at  Tuskegee 
I  have  always  tried  to  avoid  so  far  as  our  regular  teaching 
force  is  concerned.  But  I  repeat,  if  I  begin  to  yield  in  the 
performance  of  my  duty  when  out  of  the  South  in  one 
respect,  I  do  not  know  where  the  end  will  be.  It  is  very 
difficult  for  you,  or  any  other  person  who  is  not  in  my 
place,  to  understand  the  difficulty  and  embarrassment 
that  I  am  confronted  with.  You  have  no  idea  how  many 
invitations  of  various  kinds  I  am  constantly  refusing  or 
trying  to  get  away  from  because  I  want  to  avoid  em- 
barrassing situations.     For  example,  over  a  year  ago  Mr. 

S invited  me  to  go  to  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts, 

near  Lenox,  to  deliver  an  address  on  General  Armstrong's 
life  and  work.  When  I  reached  Stockbridge  an  hour  or 
so  before  the  time  of  delivering  the   address,   I   found 

that  Mr.  S ,  who  had  invited  me,  had  also  invited 

five  or  six  other  gentlemen  to  meet  me  at  luncheon.  The 
luncheon  I  knew  nothing  about  until  I  reached  the  town. 
Under  such  circumstances  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  how 
I  could  have  avoided  accepting  the  invitation.     A  few 

ii3 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

days  afterward  I  filled  a  long-standing  invitation  to  lecture 
at  Amherst  College.  I  reached  the  town  a  few  hours 
before  dinner  and  found  that  a  number  of  people,  includ- 
ing several  college  presidents,  had  been  invited  to  meet 
me  at  dinner.  Taking  still  another  case:  over  a  year  ago 
I  promised  a  colored  club  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
that  I  would  be  their  guest  at  a  banquet  in  October.  The 
banquet  was  held  on  the  third  of  the  month,  and  when  I 
reached  Cambridge  I  found  that  in  addition  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  colored  club,  the  Mayor  of  the  city  and  a 
number  of  Harvard  professors,  including  President  Eliot, 
had  been  invited;  and  I  could  go  on  and  state  case  after 
case.  Of  course,  if  I  wanted  to  make  a  martyr  of  myself 
and  draw  especial  attention  to  me  and  to  the  institution, 
I  could  easily  do  so  by  simply  writing  whenever  I  receive 
an  invitation  to  a  dinner  or  banquet  that  I  could  not 
accept  on  account  of  the  color  of  my  skin. 

Six  years  ago  at  the  Peace  Jubilee  in  Chicago,  where  I 
spoke  at  a  meeting  at  which  President  McKinley  was 
present,  I  took  both  luncheon  and  dinner  in  the  same 
dining-room  with  President  McKinley  and  was  the  guest 
of  the  same  club  that  he  was  a  guest  of.  There  were 
Southern  men  present,  and  the  fact  that  I  was  present 
and  spoke  was  widely  heralded  throughout  the  South,  and 
so  far  as  I  know  not  a  word  of  adverse  comment  was  made. 
For  nearly  fifteen  years  the  addresses  which  I  have  been 
constantly  making  at  dinners  and  banquets  in  the  North 
have  been  published  throughout  the  South,  and  no  ad- 
verse comment  has  been  made  regarding  my  presence  on 
these  occasions. 

Practically  all  of  the  invitations  to  functions  that  are 
of  even  a  semi-social  character  are  urged  upon  me  by 
Northern  people,  and  very  often  after  I  have  refused  to 
accept  invitations  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  on  special 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

friends  of  mine  in  order  to  get  me  to  accept.  Notwith- 
standing all  this,  where  I  accept  one  invitation  I  refuse 
ten;  in  fact,  you  have  no  idea  how  many  invitations  to 
dinner  I  refuse  while  I  am  in  the  North.  I  not  only  do 
so  for  the  reason  that  I  do  not  care  to  excite  undue  criti- 
cism, but  for  the  further  reason  that  if  I  were  to  accept 
any  large  proportion  of  such  invitations  I  would  have  little 
time  left  for  my  legitimate  work.  In  many  cases  the 
invitations  come  from  people  who  do  not  give  money 
but  simply  want  to  secure  a  notoriety  or  satisfy  curios- 
ity- 

I  have  stated  the  case  as  I  see  it,  and  with  a  view  of 
having  you  think  over  these  matters  by  the  time  that 
we  meet. 

[Signed]  Booker  T.  Washington. 

There  were  two  particularly  notable  occasions  upon 
which  Mr.  Washington  unwittingly  stirred  the  prejudices 
of  the  South.  The  first  was  when  in  1901  he  dined  with 
President  Roosevelt  and  his  family  at  the  White  House; 
the  second,  when  four  years  later  he  dined  with  Mr.  John 
Wanamaker  and  his  daughter  at  a  hotel  in  Saratoga, 
New  York. 

The  truth  of  his  dining  at  the  White  House,  of  which 
so  many  imaginary  versions  have  been  given,  was  this: 
having  received  so  many  expressions  of  approval  from  all 
sections  of  the  country  on  his  appointment  of  ex-Governor 
Jones  to  a  Federal  judgeship  in  Alabama,  which  appoint- 
ment was  made,  as  described  in  a  previous  chapter,  on 
the  recommendation  of  Booker  Washington  and  Grover 
Cleveland,  President  Roosevelt  asked  him  to  come  to  the 

US 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

White  House  and  discuss  with  him  some  further  appoint- 
ments and  other  matters  of  mutual  interest. 

On  arriving  in  Washington  he  went  to  the  home  of  his 
friend,  Whitefield  McKinlay,  a  colored  man  with  whom 
he  usually  stopped  when  in  the  Capital.  The  next  morn- 
ing he  went  to  the  White  House  by  appointment  for  an 
interview  with  the  President.  ...  Since  they  did  not  have 
time  to  finish  their  discussion,  the  President,  in  accordance 
with  the  course  he  had  often  followed  with  others  under 
similar  circumstances,  invited  Washington  to  come  to  din- 
ner so  that  they  might  finish  their  discussion  in  the  even- 
ing without  loss  of  time. 

In  response  to  this  oral  invitation  he  went  to  the  White 
House  at  the  appointed  time,  dined  with  the  President 
and  his  family  and  two  other  guests,  and  after  dinner 
discussed  with  the  President  chiefly  the  character  of  in- 
dividual colored  office  holders  or  applicants  for  office  and, 
as  says  Colonel  Roosevelt,  "the  desirability  in  specific 
cases,  notably  in  all  offices  having  to  do  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  of  getting  high-minded  and  fearless 
white  men  into  office — men  whom  we  could  be  sure  would 
affirmatively  protect  the  law-abiding  Negro's  right  to  life, 
liberty,  and  property  just  exactly  as  they  protected  the 
rights  of  law-abiding  white  men."  Also  they  discussed 
the  public  service  of  the  South  so  far  as  the  represent- 
atives of  the  Federal  Administration  were  concerned — the 
subject  upon  which  President  Roosevelt  had  wished  to  con- 
sult him.  The  next  day  the  bare  fact  that  he  had  dined 
with  the  President  was  obscurely  announced  by  the  Wash- 
116 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

ington  papers  as  a  routine  item  of  White  House  news. 
Some  days  later,  however,  an  enterprising  correspondent 
for  a  Southern  paper  lifted  this  unpretentious  item  from 
oblivion  and  sent  it  to  his  paper  to  be  blazoned  forth 
in  a  front-page  headline.  For  days  and  weeks  thereafter 
the  Southern  press  fairly  shrieked  with  the  news  of  this 
quiet  dinner.  The  very  papers  which  had  most  loudly 
praised  the  President  for  his  appointment  of  a  Southern 
Democrat  to  a  Federal  judgeship  now  execrated  him  for 
inviting  to  dine  with  him  the  man  upon  whose  recom- 
mendation he  had  made  this  appointment. 

Mr.  Washington  was  also  roundly  abused  for  his  "pre- 
sumption" in  daring  to  dine  at  the  White  House.  This 
was  a  Jittle  illogical  in  view  of  the  well-known  fact  that  an 
invitation  to  the  White  House  is  a  summons  rather  than 
an  invitation  in  the  ordinary  sense.  Neither  President 
Roosevelt  nor  Mr.  Washington  issued  any  statements  by 
way  of  explanation  or  apology.  While  it  was,  of  course, 
farthest  from  the  wishes  of  either  to  offend  the  sensibilities 
of  the  South,  neither  one — the  many  statements  to  the 
contrary,  notwithstanding — ever  indicated  subsequently 
any  regret  or  admitted  that  the  incident  was  a  mistake. 

During  the  furore  over  this  incident  both  the  President 
and  Mr.  Washington  received  many  threats  against  their 
lives.  The  President  had  the  Secret  Service  to  protect 
him,  while  Mr.  Washington  had  no  such  reliance.  His  co- 
workers surrounded  him  with  such  precautions  as  they 
could,  and  his  secretary  accumulated  during  this  period 
enough  threatening  letters  to  fill  a  desk  drawer.     It  was 

117 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

not  discovered  until  some  years  after  that  one  of  these 
threats  had  been  followed  by  the  visit  to  Tuskegee  of  a 
hired  assassin.  A  strange  Negro  was  hurt  in  jumping  off 
the  train  before  it  reached  the  Tuskegee  Institute  station. 
There  being  no  hospital  for  Negroes  in  the  town  of 
Tuskegee  he  was  taken  to  the  hospital  of  the  Institute, 
where  he  was  cared  for  and  nursed  for  several  weeks  before 
he  was  able  to  leave.  Mr.  Washington  was  absent  in 
the  North  during  all  of  this  time.  Many  months  later 
this  Negro  confessed  that  he  had  come  to  Tuskegee  in 
the  pay  of  a  group  of  white  men  in  Louisiana  for  the  pur- 
pose of  assassinating  Booker  Washington.  He  said  that 
he  became  so  ashamed  of  himself  while  being  cared  for 
by  the  doctors  and  nurses  employed  by  the  very  man  he 
had  come  to  murder  that  he  left  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to 
do  so  instead  of  waiting  to  carry  out  his  purpose  on  the 
return  of  his  victim,  as  he  had  originally  planned  to  do. 

Booker  Washington,  with  all  his  philosophy  and  ca- 
pacity for  rising  above  the  personal,  was  probably  more 
deeply  pained  by  this  affair  than  any  other  in  his  whole 
career.  His  pain  was,  however,  almost  solely  on  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  account.  He  felt  keenly  hurt  and  chagrined 
that  Mr.  Roosevelt,  whom  he  so  intensely  admired,  and 
who  was  doing  so  much,  not  only  for  his  own  race  but  for 
the  whole  South  as  he  believed,  should  suffer  all  this  abuse 
and  even  vilification  on  his  account.  President  Roosevelt 
evidently  realized  something  of  how  he  felt,  for  in  a  letter 
to  him  written  at  this  time  he  added  this  postscript:  "By 
the  way,  don't  worry  about  me;  it  will  all  come  right  in  time, 
118 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

and  if  I  have  helped  by  ever  so  little  'the  ascent  of  man'  I 
am  more  than  satisfied." 

Probably  no  single  public  event  ever  gave  Booker 
Washington  greater  pleasure  than  Colonel  Roosevelt's 
triumphant  election  to  the  Presidency  in  1904.  The  day 
after  the  election  he  wrote  the  President  the  following 
letter: 

[Personal] 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 

November  10,  1904. 

My  Dear  Mr.  President:  I  cannot  find  words  in  which 
to  express  my  feeling  regarding  the  tremendous  outcome 
of  Tuesday's  election.  I  know  that  you  feel  the  sacred 
and  almost  divine  confidence  imposed.  In  my  opinion, 
no  human  being  in  America  since  Washington,  perhaps, 
has  been  so  honored  and  vindicated.  The  result  shows 
that  the  great  heart  of  the  American  people  beats  true  and 
is  in  the  direction  of  fair  play  for  all,  regardless  of  race  or 
color.  Nothing  has  ever  occurred  which  has  given  me 
more  faith  in  all  races  or  shows  more  plainly  that  they 
will  respond  to  high  ideals  when  properly  appealed  to. 

I  know  that  you  will  not  misunderstand  me  when  I  say 
I  share  somewhat  the  feeling  of  triumph  and  added  re- 
sponsibility that  must  animate  your  soul  at  the  present 
time  because  of  the  personal  abuse  heaped  upon  you  on 
account  of  myself.  The  great  victory  and  vindication 
does  not  make  me  feel  boastful  or  vainglorious,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  very  humble,  and  gives  me  more  faith  in 
humanity  and  makes  me  more  determined  to  work  harder 
in  the  interest  of  all  our  people  of  both  races  regardless  of 
race  or  color.  I  shall  urge  our  people  everywhere  to  mani- 
fest their  gratitude  by  showing  a  spirit  of  meekness  and 

119 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

added  usefulness.  The  election  shows  to  what  a  great 
height  you  have  already  lifted  the  character  of  American 
citizenship.  Before  you  leave  the  White  House  I  am 
sure  that  the  whole  South  will  understand  you  and  love 
you. 

God  keep  you  and  bless  you. 

Yours  most  sincerely, 
[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington. 
To  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  White  House,  Washington. 

President  Roosevelt  expressed  great  appreciation  of 
this  letter  and  said  that  Mr.  Washington  had  taken  the 
election  in  just  the  way  he  would  have  wished  him  to  take 
it. 

About  two  years  later  Mr.  Washington  wrote  President 
Roosevelt  another  letter  which  throws  light  upon  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  men  as  well  as  upon  the  illogicality 
of  racial  prejudice: 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 

June  19,   1906. 

My  Dear  Mr.  President:  It  will  interest  you  to  know 
that  the  Cox  family,  over  whom  such  a  disturbance  was 
made  in  connection  with  the  Indianola,  Miss.,  post-office, 
have  started  a  bank  in  that  same  town  which  direct  and 
reliable  information  convinces  me  is  in  a  prosperous  condi- 
tion. The  bank  has  the  confidence  of  both  races.  It  is  a 
curious  circumstance  that  while  objection  was  made  to  this 
black  family  being  at  the  head  of  the  post-office  no  objec- 
tion is  made  to  this  black  man  being  president  of  a  bank 
in  the  same  town. 

A  letter  just  received  from  a  reliable  banker  in  Miss- 
issippi contains  the  following  sentences: 

120 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

"Now,  with  reference  to  Mr.  W.W.  Cox,  of  Indianola, 
Miss.,  I  beg  to  advise  that  no  man  of  color  is  as  highly 
regarded  and  respected  by  the  white  people  of  his  town 
and  county  as  he.  It  is  true  that  he  organized  and  is 
cashier  of  the  Delta  Penny  Savings  Bank,  domiciled  there. 
I  visited  Indianola  during  the  spring  of  1905  and  was  very 
much  surprised  to  note  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by 
the  bankers  and  business  men  (white)  of  that  place.  He 
is  a  good,  clean  man  and  above  the  average  in  intelligence, 
and  knows  how  to  handle  the  typical  Southern  white  man. 
In  the  last  statement  furnished  by  his  bank  to  the  State 
Auditor,  his  bank  showed  total  resources  of  #46,000.  He 
owns  and  lives  in  one  of  the  best  resident  houses  in  In- 
dianola, regardless  of  race,  and  located  in  a  part  of  the 
town  where  other  colored  men  seem  to  be  not  desired. 
The  whites  adjacent  to  him  seem  to  be  his  friends.  He 
has  a  large  plantation  near  the  town,  worth  $35,000 
or  #40,000.  He  is  a  director  in  Mr.  Pettiford's  bank 
at  Birmingham,  Ala.,  and  I  think  is  vice-president  of 
the  same.  He  also  owns  stock  in  the  bank  of  Mound 
Bayou." 

Yours  very  truly, 
[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington. 
To  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Washington,  D.  C. 


In  August,  1905,  Booker  Washington  spoke  one  Sunday 
morning  before  a  large  audience  in  Saratoga  Springs, 
N.  Y.  After  his  address  Mr.  John  Wanamaker  and  his 
daughter  were  among  those  who  came  forward  to  greet 
him.  They  also  invited  him  to  dine  with  them  at  the 
United  States  Hotel  that  afternoon.  Mr.  Wanamaker 
had  been  particularly  interested  in  Booker  Washington 

321 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

and  his  work  for  many  years.  Mr.  Washington  accepted 
this  invitation  without  the  least  thought  of  reawakening 
the  clamor  caused  by  the  Roosevelt  dinner.  The  dinner 
itself  passed  off  quietly,  pleasantly,  and  without  particular 
event.  It  was  not  until  he  took  up  the  papers  at  his  little 
hotel  in  New  York  the  next  morning  that  he  found  that  he 
had  again  stirred  up  a  hornet's  nest  similar  to  that  of  four 
years  before.  The  denunciation  was  if  anything  more 
violent;  for,  as  many  of  his  assailants  said,  he  should  have 
profited  by  the  protests  of  four  years  before.  In  an  edi- 
torial entitled,  "Booker  Washington's  Saratoga  Perform- 
ance" a  Southern  newspaper  said:  "Since  the  fateful  day 
when  Booker  T.  Washington  sat  down  to  the  dinner  table 
in  the  White  House  with  President  Roosevelt  he  has  done 
many  things  to  hurt  the  cause  of  which  he  is  regarded  as 
the  foremost  man.  .  .  .  Leaving  out  of  the  question 
the  lack  of  delicacy  and  self-respect  manifested  by  Wana- 
maker  and  his  family,  blame  must  rest  upon  Washington, 
because  he  knows  how  deep  and  impassable  is  the  gulf 
between  whites  and  blacks  in  the  South  when  the  social 
situation  is  involved.  He  deliberately  flaunts  all  this  in 
the  face  of  the  Southern  people  among  whom  he  is  living 
and  among  whom  his  work  has  to  be  carried  on.  He 
could  have  given  no  harder  knock  to  his  institution  than 
he  gave  when  he  marched  into  that  Saratoga  dinner  room 
with  a  white  woman  and  her  father." 

These  sentiments  were  expressed  editorially  by  another 
Southern  paper:  "Wanamaker  is  unworthy  to  shine  the 
shoes  of  Booker  Washington.  He  is  not  in  Washington's 
122 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

class.  If  the  truly  smart  set  of  Saratoga  was  shocked  that 
Booker  should  have  been  caught  in  this  man's  company 
and  as  his  guest  we  are  not  surprised.  But  still  Booker 
Washington  could  not  eat  dinner  with  the  most  ordinary 
white  man  in  this  section.  He  wouldn't  dare  intimate 
that  he  sought  such  social  recognition  among  whites  here"; 
and  in  conclusion  this  editorial  said:  "The  South  only 
pities  the  daughter  that  she  should  have  allowed  herself 
to  be  used  by  a  father  whose  sensibilities  and  ideas  of  the 
proprieties  are  so  dulled  by  his  asinine  qualities  that  he 
could  not  see  the  harm  in  it." 

This  vituperation  of  Mr.  Wanamaker,  and  the  scoring 
him  for  his  part  in  the  affair  even  more  than  Washington, 
recalls  an  incident  which  Mr.  Washington  himself  relates 
in  his  book  entitled,  "My  Larger  Education."  When  he 
was  making  a  trip  through  Florida,  a  few  weeks  after  his 
dinner  with  President  Roosevelt,  at  a  little  station  near 
Gainesville,  "A  white  man  got  aboard  the  train,"  he 
says,  "whose  dress  and  manner  indicated  that  he  was 
from  the  class  of  small  farmers  in  that  part  of  the  coun- 
try. He  shook  hands  with  me  very  cordially,  and  said: 
'I  am  mighty  glad  to  see  you.  I  have  heard  about 
you  and  I  have  been  wanting  to  meet  you  for  a  long 
while.' 

"I  was  naturally  pleased  at  this  cordial  reception,  but 
I  was  surprised  when,  after  looking  me  over,  he  remarked: 
'Say,  you  are  a  great  man.  You  are  the  greatest  man  in 
this  country.' 

I  protested  mildly,  but  he  insisted,  shaking  his  head 

123 


tc 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

and  repeating,  'Yes,  sir,  the  greatest  man  in  this  country.' 
Finally  I  asked  him  what  he  had  against  President  Roose- 
velt, telling  him  at  the  same  time  that,  in  my  opinion, 
the  President  of  the  United  States  was  the  greatest  man 
in  the  country. 

"'Huh!  Roosevelt?'  he  replied,  with  considerable  em- 
phasis in  his  voice,  'I  used  to  think  that  Roosevelt  was  a 
great  man  until  he  ate  dinner  with  you.  That  settled 
him  for  me.'" 

Mr.  Washington  goes  on  to  say:  "This  remark  of  a 
Florida  farmer  is  but  one  of  the  many  experiences  which 
have  taught  me  something  of  the  curious  nature  of  this 
thing  that  we  call  prejudice — social  prejudice,  race  preju- 
dice, and  all  the  rest.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
these  prejudices  are  something  that  it  does  not  pay  to  dis- 
turb. It  is  best  to  'let  sleeping  dogs  lie.'  All  sections 
of  the  United  States,  like  all  other  parts  of  the  world, 
have  their  own  peculiar  customs  and  prejudices.  For 
that  reason  it  is  the  part  of  common  sense  to  respect  them. 
When  one  goes  to  European  countries,  or  into  the  Far 
West,  or  into  India  or  China,  he  meets  certain  customs 
and  certain  prejudices  which  he  is  bound  to  respect  and, 
to  a  certain  extent,  comply  with.  The  same  holds  good 
regarding  conditions  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  In 
the  South  it  is  not  the  custom  for  colored  and  white  people 
to  be  entertained  at  the  same  hotel;  it  is  not  the  custom 
for  black  and  white  children  to  attend  the  same  school. 
In  most  parts  of  the  North  a  different  custom  prevails.  I 
have  never  stopped  to  question  or  quarrel  with  the  customs 
124 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

of  the  people  in  the  part  of  the  country  in  which  I  found 
myself." 

And  so  he  acted  in  the  case  of  the  Wanamaker  dinner. 
He  accepted  Mr.  Wanamaker's  invitation  because  he  was 
in  the  North  and  his  host  was  a  Northerner.  In  so  doing 
he  felt  that  he  was  not  violating  any  generally  accepted 
custom  or  universally  entertained  prejudice  of  the  part  of 
the  country  in  which  he  found  himself.  Had  the  in- 
conceivable occurred,  and  had  a  Southerner  invited  him  to 
dine  in  the  South,  under  conditions  in  all  other  respects 
identical,  he  would  not  have  accepted.  He  would  not 
have  been  willing  to  incur  the  resentment  of  the  South  even 
had  his  host  been  willing  to  defy  local  prejudices  by  in- 
viting him.  On  the  other  hand,  he  felt  that  the  attitude 
of  those  who  would  seek  to  control  him  in  matters  of  social 
custom  when  he  was  not  in  the  South  or  among  Southern- 
ers was  unfair  and  unreasonable. 

An  incident  which  occurred' while  he  was  stopping  at  the 
English  Hotel  in  Indianapolis  in  1903  furnished  copy  for 
the  more  or  less  sensational  press  of  the  country.  This 
hotel  does  not  as  a  rule  accept  Negroes  as  guests,  but  Mr. 
Washington  was  always  a  welcome  visitor  there  just  as  he 
was  at  many  other  hotels  where  less-favored  members  of 
his  race  were  excluded.  He  never  patronized  this  hotel  or 
any  other  for  the  purpose  of  asserting  his  rights,  but  merely 
to  obtain  the  comforts  and  the  seclusion  so  essential  to  a 
man  who  always  worked  up  to  the  limits  of  even  his  great 
strength  and  usually  a  little  beyond  such  limits.  It  is,  in- 
deed, quite  possible  that  he  might  have  lived  longer  had  he 

125 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

been  free  to  stop  at  hotels  in  the  South  instead  of  under- 
going the  constant  wear  and  tear  of  being  entertained  in 
the  private  homes  of  the  all-too-kind  hosts  of  his  own  race. 
All  public  men  and  lecturers,  in  a  large  way  of  business, 
learn  early  in  their  careers  that  they  must  decline  practi- 
cally all  proffers  of  private  hospitality  if  they  are  to  pre- 
serve their  health. 

On  this  occasion  the  white  chambermaid  assigned  to  care 
for  the  room  he  occupied  refused  to  perform  her  duties  so 
far  as  his  room  was  concerned  on  the  ground,  as  she  stated, 
that  she  "would  not  clean  up  after  a  nigger."  For  this  re- 
fusal to  do  her  work  the  management  discharged  her.  The 
Springfield  Republican  of  that  date  thus  describes  what 
followed:  "A  hotel  at  Houston,  Texas,  immediately 
offered  her  a  place  there,  which  she  accepted,  but  as  mat- 
ters are  now  going  she  is  more  likely  to  retire  from  the 
business  as  a  grand  lady  living  on  an  independent  income. 
Her  name  is  upon  all  tongues  in  the  Southland,  and  the 
newspapers  print  long  and  complimentary  accounts  of  her 
life  and  the  one  great  deed  that  has  made  her  famous. 
Citizens  and  communities  vie  with  each  other  in  con- 
tributing money.  .  .  .  Captain  John  W.  Johnson 
of  Sheffield,  Ala.,  is  organizing  a  general  subscription 
fund  from  that  and  neighboring  towns.  A  meeting  at 
Houston,  Texas,  raised  #500  for  her  in  the  name  of  a  'self- 
respecting  girl.'  The  Houston  Chronicle  is  conducting 
another  popular  subscription.  Contributions  are  coming 
into  it  from  all  parts  of  Texas.  Citizens  of  New  Orleans 
have  raised  $1,000.  About  twoscore  Southern  towns  and 
126 


MEETING  RACE   PREJUDICE 

a  dozen  cities  so  far  figure  in  the  contributions.  The  move- 
ment extends  to  Indianapolis,  where  a  gold  watch  has  been 
contributed."  The  hysterical  lauding  of  this  " heroine" 
was  subsequently  wet  blanketed  by  the  discovery  that  she 
had  cared  for  Mr.  Washington's  room  for  the  first  day  or 
two  of  his  stay  without  protest,  and  by  the  further  dis- 
covery that  her  second  or  third  husband  had  recently  ob- 
tained a  divorce  from  her. 

It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  many  of  the  leading  citizens 
of  the  South  strongly  deprecated  the  sensational  mag- 
nifying of  this  trivial  incident  by  a  certain  section  of  the 
Southern  press.  Mr.  Washington  declined  to  make 
any  comment  for  publication  during  or  after  this  petty 
tumult. 

In  spite  of  the  three  events  described,  and  others  of  a  like 
nature  that  might  be  mentioned,  no  Negro  was  ever  so 
liked,  respected,  admired,  and  eulogized  by  the  Southern 
whites  as  Booker  Washington.  The  day  following  his 
great  speech  before  the  Cotton  States  Exposition  in  Atlanta 
in  1895  when  he  went  out  upon  the  streets  of  the  city  he 
was  so  besieged  by  white  citizens  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  who  wanted  to  shake  his  hand  and  congratu- 
late him,  that  he  was  fairly  driven  in  self-defense  to  remain 
indoors.  Not  many  years  after  that  it  had  become  a  com- 
monplace for  him  to  be  an  honored  guest  on  important 
public  occasions  throughout  the  South.  On  occasions  too 
numerous  even  to  note  in  passing  he  was  welcomed,  and 
introduced  to  great  audiences,  by  Southern  Governors, 
Mayors,  and  other  high  officials,  as  well  as  by  eminent 

127 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

private  citizens.  Such  recognition  came  partly  as  a 
spontaneous  tribute  to  the  great  work  he  was  doing  and 
partly  because  of  his  constantly  reiterated  assurance  that 
the  Negro  was  not  seeking  either  political  domination  over 
the  white  man  or  social  intercourse  with  him.  He 
reasoned  that  the  more  Southern  whites  he  could  convince 
that  his  people  were  not  seeking  what  is  known  as  social 
equality  or  political  dominance,  the  less  race  friction  there 
would  be. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  at  the  opening  of  the 
first  Negro  agricultural  fair  in  Albany,  Georgia,  in  the  fall 
of  1914,  the  Mayor  of  the  city  and  several  members  of  the 
City  Council  sat  on  the  platform  during  the  exercises  and 
listened  to  his  speech  with  most  spontaneous  and  obvious 
approval.  In  this  part  of  Georgia  the  Negroes  outnum- 
ber the  whites  by  at  least  six  to  one.  The  afternoon  of  the 
same  day  the  Mayor  invited  Booker  Washington  and  his 
party  to  come  to  the  city  hall  and  confer  with  himself,  the 
other  city  officials,  and  a  group  of  prominent  private  citi- 
zens on  the  relations  between  the  races  in  that  city  and 
locality.  At  this  conference  there  was  a  friendly,  easy 
interchange  of  ideas  interspersed  with  jokes  and  laughter, 
but  all  the  time  Mr.  Washington  was  leading  them  step  by 
step  to  see  that  by  giving  the  Negroes  proper  educational 
opportunities  they  were  helping  themselves  as  well  as 
the  Negroes.  Mr.  Stowe,  who  was  present  at  this  con- 
ference, noticed  to  his  surprise  that  some  of  the  arguments 
advanced  by  Dr.  Washington,  which  seemed  to  him  to  be 
almost  worn-out  truisms,  although  freshly  and  strongly  ex- 
128 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

pressed,  were  seized  upon  by  his  auditors  as  new  and 
original  ideas.  When  he  made  this  observation  to 
Mr.  Washington  after  the  meeting  he  said  that  several 
other  Northerners  had  under  similar  circumstances  made 
the  same  observation  and  then  he  added:  "I  only  wish 
that  it  were  possible  for  me  to  spend  several  months  of  each 
year  talking  with  just  such  groups  of  representative 
Southern  men.  They  are  always  responsive,  eager  to 
understand  what  we  are  driving  at,  and  sympathetic  when 
they  do  understand.  The  necessity  for  raising  money  has, 
forced  us  to  devote  the  bulk  of  our  time  to  educating  the 
Northern  public  to  the  needs  of  the  situation  to  the 
neglect  of  our  Southern  white  neighbors  right  here  about 


us." 


It  was  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  illogical  workings 
of  race  prejudice  that  this  man  to  whom  the  city  fathers 
from  the  Mayor  down  gave  up  practically  their  entire  day 
— this  man  to  whom  the  city  hall  was  thrown  open  and  at 
whose  feet  sat  the  leading  citizens  as  well  as  the  officials  of 
the  city,  could  not  have  found  shelter  in  any  hotel  in  town. 
This  man  whom  the  officials  and  other  leading  citizens  de- 
lighted to  honor  arrived  at  night  on  a  Pullman  sleeping  car 
in  violation  of  the  law  of  the  State;  and,  after  all  possible 
honor  had  been  paid  him,  save  allowing  him  to  enter  a 
hotel,  departed  the  next  night  by  a  Pullman  sleeper  in 
violation  of  the  law! 

This  constant  "law-breaker"  was  welcomed  and  in- 
troduced to  audiences  by  Governor  Blanchard  of  Louisi- 
ana at  Shreveport,  La.;  by  Governor  Candler  at  Atlanta* 

129 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Ga.;  by  Governor  Donaghey  at  Little  Rock,  Ark.;  by 
Governor  McCorkle  of  West  Virginia,  and  successively  by 
Governors  Jelks  and  O'Neil  of  his  own  State  of  Alabama. 
Still  other  Southern  Governors  spoke  from  the  same  plat- 
form with  him  at  congresses,  conventions,  and  meetings  of 
various  descriptions. 

Next  to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  perhaps  no  State  in 
the  Union  has  shown  as  much  hostility  to  the  progress  of 
the  Negro  as  Mississippi.  In  1908,  in  response  to  the 
urgent  appeals  of  Charles  Banks,  the  Negro  banker  and 
dominating  force  of  the  Negro  town  of  Mound  Bayou,  Mr. 
Washington  agreed  to  make  a  tour  through  Mississippi 
such  as  he  had  made  three  years  before  through  Arkansas 
and  what  were  then  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territories. 
At  Jackson,  Miss.,  the  management  of  the  State  Fair  Asso- 
ciation offered  the  local  committee  of  Negroes  the  great 
Liberal  Arts  Building  for  Mr.  Washington's  address.  '  In 
the  audience  were  not  less  than  five  thousand  persons, 
among  them  several  hundred  white  citizens.  Among  the 
whites  who  sat 'on  the  platform  were  Governor  Noel, 
Lieutenant-Governor  Manship,  Bishop  Charles  B.  Gal- 
loway of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South,  Mr. 
Milsaps,  the  richest  citizen  of  the  State;  the  postmaster  of 
Jackson,  the  United  States  Marshal,  Hon.  Edgar  S.  Wil- 
son, and  a  considerable  number  of  other  prominent  white 
citizens. 

At  Natchez,  a  few  nights  later,  the  audience  literally 
filled  every  available  space  in  the  Grand  Opera  House  and 
overflowed  into  the  adjoining  streets.  This  audience  was 
130 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable  that  the  city  had 
ever  seen.  The  entire  orchestra  was  given  over  to  the 
white  citizens  of  Natchez  and  Adams  County,  and  still 
there  was  not  room  to  accommodate  them,  for  they  were 
packed  in  the  rear  and  stood  three  and  four  deep  in  the 
aisles.  The  colored  people  were  crowded  into  the  balcony 
and  the  galleries.  When  Booker  Washington  arose  to 
speak,  he  was  greeted  by  a  perfect  whirlwind  of  applause 
and  cheering.  He  was  visibly  affected  by  the  reception 
given  him  by  whites  as  well  as  blacks. 

When  he  finished  speaking  a  large  delegation  headed  by 
the  Mayor  of  the  city  made  their  way  to  the  platform,  wel- 
comed him  to  the  city,  thanked  him  for  his  address,  and 
stated  that  his  influence  for  good  in  the  city  and  county 
could  not  be  estimated. 

Mr.  J.  T.  Harahan,  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  pro- 
vided., the  Pullman  tourist  car  in  which  Mr.  Washington 
and  his  party  toured  the  State.  It  was  estimated  that 
from  sixty  to  eighty  thousand  people  saw  and  heard  him 
during  his  seven  days'  trip.  On  the  conclusion  of  the  tour 
one  paper  said,  "No  more  popular  man  ever  came  into  the 
State,  white  or  black,  and  no  man  ever  spoke  to  larger 
audiences  than  he  did.  He  is  the  only  speaker  who  ever 
filled  the  Jackson,  Miss.,  Coliseum." 

Only  six  months  before  his  death  Booker  Washington 
made  a  similar  tour  through  Louisiana.  Louisiana  has  al- 
ways been  reputed  to  be  in  the  same  category  as  Mississippi 
in  opposing  Negro  progress.  To  some  of  his  audiences 
Mr.  Washington  said  that  he  and  his  party  of  twenty-five 

131 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

colored  men  had  felt  before  they  started  very  much  like  the 
little  girl  who  was  about  to  go  on  a  trip  to  Louisiana  with 
her  parents.  The  night  before  they  started  she  said  her 
prayer  as  usual: 


a 


Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep. 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take.'' 


With  a  deep  sigh  she  then  added,  "Good-bye,  Lord,  for  two 
weeks.     We  are  going  down  to  Louisiana." 

In  introducing  Mr.  Washington  to  a  great  audience  in 
New  Orleans,  made  up  of  both  races,  Mayor  Berhman  said, 
turning  to  Booker  Washington: 

"The  work  you  are  doing  for  the  uplift  of  your  people 
means  untold  good  to  the  great  State  of  Louisiana  and  to 
the  whole  country.  Nowhere  has  your  race  greater 
opportunities  than  in  Louisiana.  If  the  people  of  the 
Negro  race  will  follow  your  teachings,  they  will  help 
materially  to  bring  about  a  condition  that  will  mean  much 
for  Louisiana,  the  South,  and  the  nation. " 

At  Shreveport  former  Governor  N.  C.  Blanchard,  in 
introducing  Dr.  Washington  to  an  audience  of  over  10,000 
white  and  colored  citizens,  said:  "I  am  glad  to  see  this 
goodly  attendance  of  white  people,  representative  white 
people  at  that,  for  his  Honor,  the  Mayor,  is  here,  and  with 
him  are  members  and  officials  of  the  city  government  and 
132 


MEETING  RACE  PREJUDICE 

other  prominent  citizens  of  our  community.  They  are  here 
to  give  encouragement  to  Mr.  Washington,  to  hold  up  his 
hands,  for  they  know  that  he  is  leading  his  people  along 
right  lines — lines  tending  to  promote  better  feeling  and 
better  understanding  between  the  two  races.     .     .     . 

"Our  country  needs  to  have  white  and  black  people, 
sober,  honest,  frugal,  and  thrifty.  Booker  T.  Washington 
stands  for  these  things.  He  advises  and  counsels  and 
leads  toward  these  goals.  Hear  him  and  heed  his 
words." 

At  the  invitation  of  Superintendent  Gwinn  the  colored 
school  children  of  New  Orleans  were  given  a  half-holiday 
to  hear  Dr.  Washington.  He  addressed  them  in  an  arena 
seating  more  than  five  thousand  people,  which  was  given 
for  the  occasion  by  its  white  owner. 

To  one  of  these  Louisiana  audiences  Mr.  Washington 
said:  "Both  races  in  the  South  suffer  at  the  hands  of 
public  opinion  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  outside 
world  hears  of  our  difficulties,  of  crimes,  mobs,  and  lynch- 
ings,  but  it  does  not  hear  of  or  know  about  the  evidences  of 
racial  friendship  and  good-will  which  exist  in  the  majority 
of  communities  in  Louisiana  and  other  Southern  States 
where  black  and  white  people  live  together  in  such  large 
numbers.  Lynchings  are  widely  reported  by  telegraph. 
The  quiet,  effective  work  of  devoted  white  people  in  the 
South  for  Negro  uplift  is  not  generally  or  widely  reported. 
The  best  white  citizenship  must  take  charge  of  the  mob 
and  not  have  the  mob  take  charge  of  civilization.  There 
is   enough  wisdom,  patience,  forbearance,  and  common 

133 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

sense  in  the  South  for  white  people  and  black  people  to  live 
together  in  peace  for  all  time." 

In  short,  Booker  Washington  met  race  prejudice  just  as 
he  did  all  other  difficulties,  as  an  obstacle  to  be  sur- 
mounted rather  than  as  an  injustice  to  be  railed  at  and  de- 
nounced regardless  of  the  consequences. 


134 


CHAPTER  SIX 

GETTING    CLOSE    TO    THE    PEOPLE 

ONE  secret  of  Booker  Washington's  leadership  was  that 
he  always  had  his  ear  to  the  ground  and  his  feet  on 
the  ground.  Some  one  has  said  that  "a  practical  ideal- 
ist is  a  man  who  keeps  his  feet  on  the  ground  even  though 
his  head  is  in  the  clouds."  Booker  Washington  was 
that  kind  of  an  idealist.  He  kept  in  constant  and  inti- 
mate touch  with  the  masses  of  his  people,  particularly 
with  those  on  the  soil.  Like  the  giant  in  the  fable  who 
doubled  his  strength  every  time  he  touched  the  ground, 
Booker  Washington  seemed  to  renew  his  strength  every 
time  he  came  in  contact  with  the  plain  people  of  his  race, 
particularly  the  farmers.  No  matter  how  pressed  and 
driven  by  multifarious  affairs,  he  could  always  find  time 
for  a  rambling  talk,  apparently  quite  at  random,  with  an 
old,  uneducated,  ante-bellum  black  farmer.  Sometimes  he 
would  halt  the  entire  business  of  a  national  convention  in 
order  to  hear  the  comment  of  some  simple  but  shrewd  old 
character.  He  had  a  profound  respect  for  the  wisdom  of 
simple  people  who  lived  at  close  grips  with  the  realities  of 
life. 

At  the  1914  meeting  of  the  National  Negro  Business 
League  at  Muskogee,  Okla.,  a  Mr.  Jake ,  who  had 

135 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

started  as  an  ignorant  orphan  boy,  delighted  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's heart  when  he  testified :  "When  I  first  started  out 
I  lived  in  a  chicken  house,  12  x  14  feet;  now  I  own  a  ten- 
room  residence,  comfortably  furnished,  and  in  a  settle- 
ment where  we  have  a  good  school,  a  good  church,  and 
plenty  of  amusement,  including  ten  children." 

After  the  laughter  and  applause  had  subsided  Mr. 
Washington  asked:  "Do  you  think  there  is  the  same  kind 
of  an  opening  out  here  in  Oklahoma  for  other  and  younger 
men  of  our  race  to  do  as  you  have  done  and  to  succeed 
equally  as  well?" 

To  which  Mr.  Jake  replied:  ".  .  .  I  think  I  have 
succeeded  with  little  or  no  education,  and  it  stands  to 
reason  that  some  of  the  graduates  from  these  industrial 
and  agricultural  schools  ought  to  be  able  to  do  better  than 
I  have  done." 

Which  was,  of  course,  just  the  answer  Mr.  Washington 
hoped  he  would  make. 

Mr.  Washington's  instinct  for  keeping  close  to  the  plain 
people  was  perhaps  best  illustrated  by  his  tours  through 
the  far  Southern  States  for  the  improvement  of  the  living 
conditions  of  his  people,  the  tours  to  which  allusion  has 
several  times  been  made.  His  insistence  upon  cleanliness, 
neatness,  and  paint  became  so  well  known  that  his  ap- 
proach to  a  community  frequently  caused  frantic  cleaning 
up  of  yards,  mending  of  gates,  and  painting  of  houses. 
These  sudden  converts  to  paint  sometimes  found  out  from 
which  side  the  great  man  was  to  approach  their  house  and 
painted  only  that  side  and  the  front. 
136 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

When  he  spoke  to  his  people  on  these  trips  he  had  the 
faculty  of  becoming  one  of  them.  He  described  their 
daily  lives  in  their  own  language.  He  told  them  how  much 
land  they  owned,  how  much  of  it  was  mortgaged,  how 
much  and  what  they  raised,  and  in  fact  every  vital  eco- 
nomic and  social  fact  about  their  lives  and  the  conditions 
about  them.  He  praised  them  for  what  was  creditable, 
censured  and  bantered  them  for  what  was  bad,  and  told 
them  what  conditions  should  be  and  how  they  could  make 
them  so. 

He  made  these  tours  through  Mississippi,  Tennessee, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Texas,  Florida,  Louisi- 
ana, and  portions  of  Alabama  and  Georgia. 

Besides  these  State  tours  he  would,  whenever  he  could 
take  the  time,  shoot  out  into  the  country  surrounding 
Tuskegee  Institute  to  encourage  and  promote  the  efforts  of 
his  neighbors  of  his  own  race.  In  July,  191 1,  accompanied 
by  some  guests  and  members  of  his  faculty,  he  made  such 
a  visit  to  Mt.  Olive,  a  village  on  the  east  of  Tuskegee. 
The  party  was  first  taken  to  the  village  church  where  they 
found  a  teeming  congregation  to  greet  them.  Here  Mr. 
Washington  was  introduced  by  the  principal  of  the 
"Washington  School"  who  said  that  since  Mr.  Washing- 
ton's visit  eighteen  months  ago  the  colored  people  had 
purchased  forty-one  lots,  built  several  new  houses,  white- 
washed or  painted  the  old  ones,  and  increased  their  gardens 
to  such  an  extent  that  few,  if  any,  had  still  to  buy  their 
vegetables. 

Mr.  Washington  opened  his  talk  by  saying:  "It  is  an 

137 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

inspiration  simply  to  drive  through  and  see  your  pleasant 
houses  surrounded  by  flowers  and  gardens  and  all  that  goes 
to  make  life  happy."  He  then  appealed  to  the  women 
to  make  their  homes  as  attractive  on  the  inside  as  the 
gardens  had  made  them  on  the  outside.  He  told  them 
the  best  receipt  for  keeping  the  men  and  the  children  at 
home  and  out  of  mischief  was  to  make  the  homes  so  at- 
tractive that  they  would  not  want  to  go  away.  Then,  as 
always,  before  he  closed  he  put  in  his  warnings  and  in- 
junctions to  the  derelict:  "Paint  your  houses;  if  you  can't 
paint  them,  whitewash  them.  Put  the  men  to  work  in 
their  spare  hours  repairing  fences,  gates,  and  windows. 
Get  together  in  your  church,  as  you  have  in  your  school- 
work,  settle  on  a  pastor  and  get  him  to  live  in  your  com- 
munity. Pay  him  in  order  that  he  may  live  here  and 
become  a  part  of  your  community." 

On  another  such  trip  through  the  southwestern  part  of 
Macon  County,  the  county  in  which  Tuskegee  is  located, 
he  was  once  accompanied  by  Judge  Robert  H.  Terrell,  the 
Negro  Judge  of  the  District  of  Columbia;  the  Hon.  White- 
field  McKinlay,  the  Negro  Collector  of  Customs  for  the 
District  of  Columbia;  George  L.  Knox,  owner  and  editor 
of  the  Indianapolis  Freeman,  a  Negro  newspaper;  W.  T.  B. 
Williams,  agent  for  the  Anna  T.  Jeanes  Fund  and  the 
Slater  Board;  Dr.  Thomas  Jesse  Jones  of  the  United  States 
Census  Bureau,  and  Lord  Eustace  Percy,  one  of  the  Secre- 
taries of  the  British  Embassy  at  Washington. 

One  can  well  imagine  with  what  pride  the  simple  black 
farmers  of  Macon  County  displayed  their  products  and 
138 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

their  live  stock  to  these  distinguished  representatives  of 
both  races  headed  by  their  own  great  neighbor  and  leader. 
At  Mt.  Andrew,  one  of  the  communities  visited,  the 
Farmers'  Improvement  Club  had  prepared  an  exhibit 
consisting  of  the  best  specimens  of  vegetables,  fruits,  and 
meats  raised  in  the  community.  A  report  stated  that 
the  Negro  people  of  the  town  owned  over  two  hundred 
head  of  live  stock  and  had  over  thirty  houses  which  were 
either  whitewashed  or  painted.  When  called  upon  for 
remarks,  Mr.  Washington  expressed  himself  as  greatly 
encouraged  by  what  he  had  seen  and  said  in  conclusion, 
"Here  in  Macon  County  you  have  good  land  that  will 
grow  abundant  crops.  You  have  also  a  good  citizenship, 
and  hence  there  is  every  opportunity  for  you  to  make  your 
community  a  heaven  upon  earth." 

Booker  Washington  was  always  emphasizing  the  ne- 
cessity of  better  conditions  right  here  and  now  instead  of 
in  a  distant  future  or  in  heaven.  He  was  constantly 
combating  the  tendency  in  his  people — a  tendency  common 
to  all  people  but  naturally  particularly  strong  in  those 
having  a  heritage  of  slavery — to  substitute  the  anticipated 
bliss  of  a  future  life  for  effective  efforts  to  improve  the 
conditions  of  this  present  life.  He  was  always  telling 
them  to  put  their  energies  into  societies  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  health  and  improvement  of  living  conditions,  in- 
stead of  into  the  too  numerous  and  popular  sick  benefit  and 
death  benefit  organizations. 

At  the  next  stop  of  the  party  Mr.  Washington  was 
introduced  to  the  assembled  townspeople  by  a  graduate 

139 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

of  Tuskegee  Institute,  who  was  one  of  their  leading  citizens 
and  most  successful  farmers.  In  this  talk  he  urged  the 
people  to  get  more  land  and  keep  it  and  to  grow  something 
besides  cotton.  He  said  they  should  not  lean  upon  others 
and  should  not  go  to  town  on  Saturdays  to  "draw  upon" 
the  merchants,  but  should  stay  at  home  and  "draw  every 
day  from  their  own  soil  corn,  peas,  beans,  and  hogs." 
He  urged  the  men  to  give  their  wives  more  time  to  work 
around  the  house  and  to  raise  vegetables.  (This,  of 
course,  instead  of  requiring  them  to  work  in  the  fields  with 
the  men  as  is  so  common.)  He  urged  especially  that 
they  take  their  wives  into  their  confidence  and  make  them 
their  partners  as  well  as  their  companions.  He  assured 
them  that  if  they  took  their  wives  into  partnership  they 
would  accumulate  more  and  get  along  better  in  every  way. 

There  was  no  advice  given  by  him  more  constantly  or 
insistently  in  speaking  to  the  plain  people  of  his  race, 
whether  in  country  or  city,  than  this  injunction  to  the 
men  to  take  their  wives  into  their  confidence  and  make 
them  their  partners.  He  recognized  that  the  home  was 
the  basis  of  all  progress  and  civilization  for  his  race,  as  well 
as  all  other  races,  and  that  the  wife  and  mother  is  primarily 
the  conservator  of  the  home. 

One  of  the  stops  of  the  trip  was  at  a  little  hamlet  called 
Damascus.  Here,  in  characteristic  fashion,  he  told  the 
people  how  much  richer  they  were  in  soil  and  all  natural 
advantages  than  were  the  inhabitants  of  the  original  Da- 
mascus in  the  Holy  Land.  He  then  argued  that  having 
these  great  natural  advantages,  much  was  to  be  expected 
140 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

of  them,  etc.  Like  all  great  preachers,  teachers,  and  leaders 
of  men  he  seized  upon  the  names,  incidents,  and  conditions 
immediately  about  him  and  from  them  drew  lessons  of 
fundamental  import  and  universal  application. 

The  efforts  of  the  Negro  farmers  on  these  trips  to  get  a 
word  of  approval  from  their  great  leader  were  often  pa- 
thetic. One  old  man  had  a  good  breed  of  pigs  of  which  he 
was  particularly  proud.  He  contrived  to  be  found  feeding 
them  beside  the  road  just  as  the  great  man  and  his  party 
were  passing.  The  simple  ruse  succeeded.  Mr.  Wash- 
ington and  his  companions  stopped  and  every  one  admired 
the  proud  and  excited  old  man's  pigs.  And  then  after  the 
pigs  had  been  duly  admired,  he  led  them  to  a  rough  plank 
table  upon  which  he  had  displayed  in  tremulous  anticipa- 
tion of  this  dramatic  moment  a  huge  pumpkin,  some  per- 
fectly developed  ears  of  corn,  and  a  lusty  cabbage.  After 
these  objects  had  also  been  admired  the  old  man  decoyed 
the  party  into  the  little  whitewashed  cottage  where  his 
wife  had  her  hour  of  triumph  in  displaying  her  jars  of 
preserves,  pickles,  cans  of  vegetables,  dried  fruits,  and  syrup 
together  with  quilts  and  other  needlework  all  carefully 
arranged  for  this  hoped-for  inspection. 

The  basic  teaching  of  all  these  tours  was:  "Make  your 
own  little  heaven  right  here  and  now.  Do  it  by  putting 
business  methods  into  your  farming,  by  growing  things  in 
your  garden  the  year  around,  by  building  and  keeping 
attractive  and  comfortable  homes  for  your  children  so  they 
will  stay  at  home  and  not  go  to  the  cities,  by  keeping  your 
bodies  and  your  surroundings  clean,  by  staying  in  one 

141 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

place,  by  getting  a  good  teacher  and  a  good  preacher,  by 
building  a  good  school  and  church,  by  letting  your  wife  be 
your  partner  in  all  you  do,  by  keeping  out  of  debt,  by 
cultivating  friendly  relations  with  your  neighbors  both 
white  and  black." 

Mr.  Washington  was  constantly  bringing  up  in  the 
Tuskegee  faculty  meetings  cases  of  distress  among  the 
colored  people  of  the  county,  which  he  had  personally  dis- 
covered while  off  hunting  or  riding,  and  planning  ways  and 
means  to  relieve  them.  Apparently  it  never  occurred  to 
him  that  technically,  at  least,  the  fate  of  these  poor  persons 
was  not  his  affair  nor  that  of  his  school.  At  one  such 
meeting  he  told  of  having  come  upon  while  hunting  a 
tumbledown  cabin  in  the  woods,  within  it  a  half-para- 
lyzed old  Negro  obviously  unable  to  care  for  his  simple 
wants.  Mr.  Washington  had  stopped,  built  a  fire  in  his 
stove,  and  otherwise  made  him  comfortable  temporarily, 
but  some  provision  for  the  old  man's  care  must  be  made  at 
once.  One  of  the  teachers  knew  about  the  old  man  and 
stated  that  he  had  such  an  ugly  temper  that  he  had  driven 
off  his  wife,  son,  and  daughter  who  had  until  recently  lived 
with  him  and  taken  care  of  him.  The  young  teacher 
seemed  to  feel  that  the  old  man  had  brought  his  troubles 
upon  his  own  head  and  so  deserved  little  sympathy.  Mr. 
Washington  would  not  for  a  moment  agree  to  this.  He 
replied  that  if  the  old  fellow  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  have 
a  bad  temper  as  well  as  his  physical  infirmities  that  was  no 
reason  why  he  should  be  allowed  to  suffer  privation.  He 
delegated  one  of  the  teachers  to  look  up  the  old  man's 
142 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

family  at  once  and  see  if  they  could  be  prevailed  upon  to 
support  him  and  to  report  at  the  next  meeting  what  had 
been  arranged.  In  the  meantime  he  would  send  some 
one  out  to  the  cabin  daily  to  take  him  food  and  attend  to 
his  wants. 

At  another  faculty  meeting  he  brought  up  the  plight 
of  an  old  woman  who  was  about  to  be  evicted  from  her 
little  shack  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  because  of  her 
inability  to  pay  the  nominal  rent  which  she  was  charged. 
He  arranged  to  have  her  rent  paid  out  of  a  sum  of  money 
which  he  always  had  included  in  the  school  budget  for  the 
relief  of  such  cases.  In  such  ways  he  was  constantly  im- 
pressing upon  his  associates  the  idea  that  was  ever  a  main- 
spring of  his  own  life — namely,  that  it  was  always  and 
everywhere  the  duty  of  the  more  fortunate  to  help  the  less 
fortunate. 

While  he  was  sometimes  severe  with  his  more  prosperous 
and  better  educated  associates  he  was  always  considerate 
and  thoughtful  of  the  ignorant,  the  old,  and  the  weak.  He 
was  never  too  busy  to  delight  the  heart  of  a  white-haired 
old  man  who  had  been  the  original  cook  of  the  school  by 
listening  to  his  stories  about  the  early  days,  or  to  discuss 
with  another  old  man  his  experiences  in  the  Civil  War. 
He  would  never  betray  the  least  impatience  in  listening 
to  these  old  men  tell  him  the  same  story  for  the  five  hun- 
dredth time.  Although  the  real  usefulness  of  both  these 
old  fellows  had  long  passed  he  never  showed  them  by  word 
or  deed  that  he  did  not  regard  them  as  useful  and  valuable 
members  of  his  staff. 

143 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Another  old  character  to  whom  he  invariably  showed 
kindness  and  patience  was  a  crack-brained  old  itinerant 
preacher  who  kept  up  an  endless  stream  of  unintelligible 
pious  jargon.  This  old  fellow  would  harangue  the  air  for 
hours  at  a  time  right  outside  the  Principal's  busy  office, 
but  he  would  never  allow  him  to  be  stopped  or  sent  away 
and  always  sent  or  gave  him  a  small  contribution  at  the 
conclusion  of  his  tirades,  if  indeed  they  could  be  said  to 
have  any  conclusion. 

Booker  Washington  had  a  weakness  for  the  picturesque 
ne'er-do-wells  of  his  race.  One  such  old  fellow,  who  lived 
near  Tuskegee  and  who  had  always  displayed  great  in- 
genuity in  extracting  money  from  him,  one  day,  when  he 
was  driving  down  the  main  street  of  Tuskegee  behind  a 
pair  of  fast  and  spirited  horses,  rushed  out  into  the  street 
and  stopped  him  as  though  he  had  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
urgency  to  impart  to  him.  When  Mr.  Washington  had 
with  difficulty  reined  in  his  horses  and  asked  him  what 
he  wanted  the  old  man  said  breathlessly,  "I'se  got  a 
tirkey  for  yo'  Thanksgivin'!" 

"How  much  does  it  weigh?"  inquired  Mr.  Washington. 

"Twelve  to  fifteen  poun'." 

After  thanking  the  old  man  warmly,  Mr.  Washington 
started  to  drive  on  when  the  old  fellow  added,  "I  jest 
wants  to  borrow  a  dollar  for  to  fatten  yo'  turkey  for 
you!" 

With  a  laugh  Mr.  Washington  handed  the  old  man  the 
dollar  and  drove  on.  He  never  could  be  made  to  feel  that 
by  these  spontaneous  generosities  he  was  encouraging 
144 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

thriftlessness  and  mendicancy.  He  was  incorrigible  in  his 
unscientific  open-handedness  with  the  poor,  begging  older 
members  of  his  race. 

At  the  time  of  the  Tuskegee  teachers'  annual  picnic, 
usually  held  in  May,  many  of  these  old  darkies  would 
attend  uninvited  and  armed  with  huge  empty  baskets. 
Mr.  Washington  always  greeted  them  like  honored  guests 
and  allowed  them  to  carry  off  provisions  enough  to  feed 
large  families  for  days.  He  would  also  introduce  them 
to  the  officers  and  teachers  of  the  school  and  to  any  invited 
guests  who  might  be  present. 

Old  man  Harry  Varner  was  the  night  watchman  of  the 
school  in  its  early  days  and  a  man  upon  whom  Mr.  Wash- 
ington very  much  depended.  He  lived  in  a  cabin  opposite 
the  school  grounds.  After  hearing  many  talks  about  the 
importance  of  living  in  a  real  house  instead  of  a  one  or 
two  room  cabin,  old  Uncle  Harry  finally  decided  that  he 
must  have  a  real  house.  Accordingly  he  came  to  his  em- 
ployer, told  him  his  feeling  in  the  matter,  and  laid  before 
him  his  meagre  savings,  which  he  had  determined  to  spend 
for  a  real  house.  Mr.  Washington  went  with  him  to  select 
the  lot  and  added  enough  out  of  his  own  pocket  to  the 
scant  savings  to  enable  the  old  man  to  buy  a  cow  and  a  pig 
apd  a  garden  plot  as  well  as  the  house.  From  then  on  for 
weeks  he  and  old  Uncle  Harry  would  have  long  and  mys- 
terious conferences  over  the  planning  of  that  little  four- 
room  cottage.  It  is  doubtful  if  Dr.  Washington  ever 
devoted  more  time  or  thought  to  planning  any  of  the  great 
buildings  of  the  Institute.     No  potentate  was  ever  half  as 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

proud  of  his  palace  as  Uncle  Harry  of  his  four-room  cottage 
when  it  was  finally  finished  and  painted  and  stood  forth 
in  all  its  glory  to  be  admired  of  all  men.  And  Booker 
Washington  was  scarcely  less  proud  of  it  than  Uncle 
Harry. 

With  Uncle  Harry  Varner,  Old  Man  Brannum,  the 
original  cook  of  the  school  to  whom  reference  has  already 
been  made,  and  Lewis  Adams  of  the  town  of  Tuskegee, 
whom  Mr.  Washington  mentions  in  "Up  from  Slavery" 
as  one  of  his  chief  advisers,  all  unlettered-before-the-war 
Negroes,  his  relationship  was  always  particularly  intimate. 
These  three  old  men  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  white 
people  of  the  town  of  Tuskegee  to  an  unusual  extent  and 
often  acted  as  ambassadors  of  good-will  between  the  head 
of  the  school  and  his  white  neighbors  when  from  time  to 
time  the  latter  showed  a  disposition  to  look  askance  at 
the  rapidly  growing  institution  on  the  hill  beyond  the 
town. 

Another  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Washington's  was 
Charles  L.  Diggs,  known  affectionately  on  the  school 
grounds  as  "Old  Man  Diggs."  The  old  man  had  been 
body  servant  to  a  Union  officer  in  the  Civil  War  and  after 
the  war  had  been  carried  to  Boston,  where  he  became  the 
butler  in  a  fashionable  Back  Bay  family.  When  Mr. 
Washington  first  visited  Boston,  as  an  humble  and  obscure 
young  Negro  school  teacher  pleading  for  his  struggling 
school,  he  met  Diggs,  and  Diggs  succeeded  in  interesting 
his  employers  in  the  sincere  and  earnest  young  Negro 
teacher.  When  years  afterward  the  Institute  had  grown 
146 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

to  the  dignity  of  needing  stewards,  Mr.  Washington  em- 
ployed his  old  friend  as  steward  of  the  Teachers'  Home. 
In  all  the  years  thereafter  hardly  a  day  passed  when  Mr. 
Washington  was  at  the  school  without  his  having  some 
kind  of  powwow  with  Old  Man  Diggs  regarding  some 
matter  affecting  the  interests  of  the  school. 

To  the  despair  of  his  family  Booker  Washington  seemed 
to  go  out  of  his  way  to  find  forlorn  old  people  whom  he 
could  befriend.  He  sent  provisions  weekly  to  an  humble 
old  black  couple  from  whom  he  had  bought  a  tract  of 
land  for  the  school.  He  did  the  same  for  old  Aunt  Harriet 
and  her  deaf,  dumb,  and  lame  son,  except  that  to  them  he 
provided  fuel  as  well.  On  any  particularly  cold  day  he 
would  send  one  or  more  students  over  to  Aunt  Harriet's 
to  find  out  if  she  and  her  poor  helpless  son  were  comfort- 
able. Also  every  Sunday  afternoon,  to  the  joy  of  this 
pathetic  couple,  a  particularly  appetizing  Sunday  dinner 
unfailingly  made  its  appearance.  And  these  were  only 
a  few  of  the  pensioners  and  semi-pensioners  whom  Booker 
Washington  accumulated  as  he  went  about  his  kindly 
way. 

One  means  of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  masses  of  his 
people  which  he  never  neglected  was  through  attending 
the  annual  National  Negro  Baptist  Conventions.  At 
these  great  gatherings  he  came  in  touch  with  the  religious 
leaders  of  two  million  Negroes.  Notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  he  practically  collapsed  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  National  Negro  Business  League  held  in  Boston  in 
August,  1915,  and  had  to  be  nursed  for  some  weeks  fol- 

H7 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

lowing  before  he  was  even  strong  enough  to  return  to 
Tuskegee,  he  insisted  in  spite  of  the  admonitions  of  phy- 
sicians and  the  pleadings  of  friends,  family,  and  colleagues, 
in  keeping  his  engagement  to  speak  before  this  great  con- 
vention in  Chicago  in  September.  To  all  protests  he  re- 
plied, "It  would  do  me  more  harm  to  stay  away  than  to 
go."  With  these  words,  and  rallying  the  rapidly  waning 
dregs  of  his  once  great  strength  he  went  and  made  an 
address  which  ranks  with  the  most  powerful  he  ever  deliv- 
ered to  his  people.  A  threatened  split  in  the  Baptist 
denomination  in  part  accounted  for  his  insistence  upon 
attending  this  convention.  In  this  address,  delivered  only 
two  months  before  he  died  of  sheer  exhaustion,  and  the 
last  he  made  before  any  great  body  of  his  own  people,  he 
said  in  part: 

"My  only  excuse  for  accepting  your  invitation  to  ap- 
pear before  you  in  these  annual  gatherings  is  that  I  am 
deeply  interested  in  all  that  this  National  Baptist  Con- 
vention stands  for.  It  is  in  my  opinion  the  largest  and 
most  representative  body  of  colored  people  anywhere  in 
the  world.  ...  I  believe  most  profoundly  in  the 
work  of  this  convention  because  it  represents  the  common 
masses  of  all  our  people,  those  who  are  the  foundation  of 
our  success  as  a  race.  I  believe  in  you  because  you  do  not 
pretend  to  represent  the  classes  but  the  masses  of  our 
people.  I  am  here,  too,  because  the  Baptist  Church 
among  our  people  throughout  the  country  is  affording 
them  an  opportunity  to  get  lessons  in  self-government  in  a 
degree  that  is  true  of  few  other  organizations. 
148 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 


«' 


(You  who  control  this  great  convention  have  before 
you  a  great  opportunity  and  along  with  this  opportunity 
a  tremendous  responsibility.  It  is  given  to  you,  as  to  all 
men,  to  pursue  one  of  two  courses,  and  that  is,  to  be  big 
leaders  or  little  leaders.  You  can  construct  or  you  can 
destroy.  The  time  is  now  at  hand  when  in  each  individual 
church  organization  and  each  district  association  and  each 
State  convention  and  in  this  great  national  convention,  the 
little  man  must  give  way  and  let  the  big,  broad,  generous 
man  take  his  place.  Nothing  is  ever  gained  in  business, 
in  education,  or  in  religious  work  by  being  little,  narrow,  or 
jealous  in  our  sympathies  and  activities." 

Two  days  later,  after  he  had  left  the  convention  and  re- 
turned home,  Mr.  Washington  received  word  that  the 
convention  had  split,  contending  leaders  holding  out  for 
what  they  termed  principles.  Immediately  on  the  receipt 
of  this  report  he  dispatched  the  following  telegram  to  the 
leaders  of  the  two  opposing  factions: 


I  earnestly  beg  and  urge  that  each  convention  remain 
in  session  until  all  differences  are  composed.  In  the 
event  this  cannot  be  done  I  hope  each  convention  will 
empower  a  small  committee  or  authorize  some  one  to 
appoint  committees  that  may  have  power  in  settling  pres- 
ent difficulties  so  that  next  year  there  may  be  but  one  con- 
vention. It  is  easier  now  to  bring  about  reconciliation 
than  it  will  be  later.  It  will  be  a  calamity  to  the  Baptist 
Church  and  to  our  race  for  the  present  split  to  continue. 
It  will  soon  spread  to  all  the  Baptist  churches  in  all  the 
States.     I  would  urge  that  each  side  manifest  a  broad 

149 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

liberal  spirit  and  be  willing  to  sacrifice  something  for  the 
good  of  the  cause.  Millions  of  our  humble  people  through- 
out the  country  are  depending  upon  our  leaders  to  settle 
their  difficulties  in  a  Christian  spirit  and  they  should  not 
be  disappointed.  If  I  may  be  used  at  any  time  in  any 
way  my  services   are  at  your  command.     Have  sent  a 

similar  telegram  to  Dr. . 

[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington. 

Unhappily  he  did  not  have  the  satisfaction  of  bringing 
the  two  factions  together  before  he  died,  but  until  the  last 
he  continued  his  efforts  in  this  direction. 

Largely  because  of  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the  plain 
people  Booker  Washington  appealed  to  the  great  of  the 
earth.  In  his  books,  "Up  from  Slavery,"  "The  Story  of 
My  Life  and  Work,"  and  "My  Larger  Education,"  he 
tells  of  taking  tea  with  Queen  Victoria  at  Windsor  Castle, 
of  his  association  with  Presidents  McKinley,  Roosevelt, 
and  Taft,  of  his  introduction  to  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia, 
of  his  dining  with  the  King  and  Queen  of  Denmark,  and 
of  his  long  friendships  with  William  H.  Baldwin,  Jr., 
Robert  C.  Ogden,  Henry  H.  Rogers,  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
and  Andrew  Carnegie.  He  was  of  value  and  interest 
to  such  people  largely  because  of  his  closeness  to  his  own 
people.  His  power  to  interest  such  people  was  largely 
because  he  was  so  close  to  the  rank  and  file  of  his  own 
people. 

After  the  death  of  Henry  H.  Rogers,  Mr.  Washington 
said  of  him  in  an  interview  published  at  the  time  in  the 
New  York  Evening  Post:  "The  more  experiences  I  have  of 

150 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

the  world,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  the  only  proper 
and  the  only  safe  way  to  judge  any  one  is  at  first  hand  and 
by  your  actual  experience.  It  seems  to  me  that,  outside 
of  the  immediate  members  of  my  family,  I  knew  the  late 
Henry  H.  Rogers  during  the  last  fifteen  years  as  well  as  I 
could  know  any  one.  Of  all  the  men  that  I  have  ever 
known  intimately,  no  matter  what  their  station  in  life, 
Mr.  Rogers  always  impressed  me  as  being  among  the  kind- 
est and  gentlest.  That  was  the  impression  he  made  upon 
me  the  first  time  I  ever  met  him,  and  during  the  fifteen 
years  that  I  knew  him  that  impression  was  deepened  every 
time  I  met  him."  (And  this. was  Booker  Washington's 
impression  of  the  second  greatest  figure  in  the  building 
up  of  the  huge,  world-powerful  corporation  whose  meth- 
ods during  its  period  of  rapid  expansion  had  at  that  time 
been  only  recently  described  in  McClure's  Magazine  by 
Ida  M.  Tarbell.)  "I  am  sure  that  the  members  of  his 
family  will  forgive  me  for  telling,  now  that  he  has  laid 
down  his  great  work  and  gone  to  rest,  some  things  about 
him  which  I  feel  that  the  public  should  know  but  which 
he  always  forbade  me  to  mention  while  he  lived. 

"The  first  time  I  ever  met  Mr.  Rogers  was  in  this 
manner:  about  fifteen  years  ago  a  large  meeting  was  held 
in  Madison  Square  Garden  concert  hall,  to  obtain  funds 
for  the  Tuskegee  Institute.  Mr.  Rogers  attended  the 
meeting,  but  came  so  late  that,  as  the  auditorium  was 
crowded,  he  could  not  get  a  seat.  He  stood  in  the 
back  part  of  the  hall,  however,  and  listened  to  the 
speaking. 

151 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

"The  next  morning  I  received  a  telegram  from  him  ask- 
ing me  to  call  at  his  office.  When  I  entered  he  remarked 
that  he  had  been  present  at  the  meeting  the  night  previous, 
and  expected  the  'hat  t»o  be  passed,'  but  as  that  was  not 
done  he  wanted  to  'chip  in'  something.  Thereupon  he 
handed  me  ten  one-thousand-dollar  bills  for  the  Tuskegee 
Institute.  In  doing  this  he  imposed  only  one  condition, 
that  the  gift  should  be  mentioned  to  no  one.  Later  on, 
however,  when  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  care  to  take  so 
large  a  sum  of  money  without  some  one  knowing  it,  he  con- 
sented that  I  tell  one  or  two  of  our  Trustees  about  the 
source  of  the  gift.  I  cannot  now  recall  the  number  of 
times  that  he  has  helped  us,  but  in  doing  so  he  always  in- 
sisted that  his  name  be  never  used.  He  seemed  to  enjoy 
making  gifts  in  currency." 

In  an  article  published  in  McChtre's  Magazine  in  May, 
1902,  Rear-Admiral  Robley  D.  Evans  thus  describes  the 
occasion  on  which  he  presented  Booker  Washington  to 
Prince  Henry  of  Prussia:  "The  first  request  made  by 
Prince  Henry,  after  being  received  in  New  York,  was  that 
I  should  arrange  to  give  him  some  of  the  old  Southern 
melodies,  if  possible,  sung  by  Negroes;  that  he  was  pas- 
sionately fond  of  them,  and  had  been  all  his  life — not  the 
ragtime  songs,  but  the  old  Negro  melodies.  Several  times 
during  his  trip  I  endeavored  to  carry  out  his  wishes,  with 
more  or  less  success;  but  finally,  at  the  Waldorf-Astoria, 
the  Hampton  singers  presented  themselves  in  one  of  the 
reception  rooms  and  gave  him  a  recital  of  Indian  and  Negro 
melodies.  He  was  charmed.  And  while  I  was  talking  to 
152 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

him,  just  after  a  Sioux  Indian  had  sung  a  lullaby,  he  sud- 
denly turned  and  said:  'Isn't  that  Booker  T.  Washington 
over  there?'  I  recognized  Washington  and  replied  that  it 
was,  and  he  said:  'Evans,  would  you  mind  presenting  him 
to  me  ?  I  know  how  some  of  your  people  feel  about  Wash- 
ington, but  I  have  always  had  great  sympathy  with  the 
African  race,  and  I  want  to  meet  the  man  I  regard  as  the 
leader  of  that  race.'  So  I  went  at  once  to  Washington  and 
told  him  that  the  Prince  wished  him  to  be  presented,  and 
took  him,  myself,  and  presented  him  to  the  Prince. 
Booker  Washington  sat  down  and  talked  with  him  for  fully 
ten  minutes,  and  it  was  a  most  interesting  conversation, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  I  ever  heard  in  my  life.  The 
ease  with  which  Washington  conducted  himself  was  very 
striking,  and  I  only  accounted  for  it  afterward  when  I  re- 
membered that  he  had  dined  with  the  Queen  of  England 
two  or  three  times,  so  that  this  was  not  a  new  thing  for  him. 
Indeed,  Booker  Washington's  manner  was  easier  than  that 
of  almost  any  other  man  I  saw  meet  the  Prince  in  this 
country.  The  Prince  afterward  referred  to  President 
Roosevelt's  action  in  regard  to  Booker  Washington,  and 
applauded  it  very  highly." 

In  191 1  Mr.  Washington  visited  Denmark  with  the  par- 
ticular purpose  of  observing  the  world-famed  agricultural 
methods  of  that  country.  While  in  Copenhagen  he  was 
presented  to  the  King  and  Queen.  This  experience  he  de- 
scribed on  his  return  to  this  country  in  an  article  published 
in  the  New  York  Age,  the  well-known  Negro  paper,  in  De- 
cember of  the  same  year.     The  portion  of  the  article  de- 

153 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

scribing  his  meeting  with  the  King  and  Queen  reads  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Soon  after  I  entered,  the  Chamberlain  went  in  and 
presently  returned  to  tell  me  the  King  would  be  ready  to 
see  me  in  about  five  minutes.  At  the  end  of  the  five  min- 
utes exactly  the  door  was  opened  and  I  found  myself  in  the 
King's  chamber.  I  had  expected  to  see  a  gorgeously 
fitted  apartment,  something  to  compare  with  what  I  had 
seen  elsewhere  in  the  palace.  Imagine  my  surprise  when  I 
found  practically  nothing  in  the  room  except  the  King, 
himself.  There  was  not  a  chair,  a  sofa,  or,  so  far  as  I  can 
recall,  a  single  thing  in  the  way  of  furniture — nothing  ex- 
cept the  King  and  his  sword.  I  was  surprised  again,  con- 
sidering the  formality  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  by  the 
familiar  and  kindly  manner  in  which  the  King  received  me, 
and  by  his  excellent  English.  Both  of  us  remained  stand- 
ing during  the  whole  interview,  which  must  have  lasted 
twenty  minutes.  I  say  we  remained  standing,  because, 
even  had  etiquette  permitted  it  we  could  not  have  done 
anything  else  because  there  was  nothing  in  the  room  for 
either  of  us  to  sit  upon. 

"I  had  been  warned  by  the  American  Minister  and  Mr. 
Cavling,  however,  as  to  what  might  be  the  result  of  this 
interview.  Among  other  things  in  regard  to  which  I  had 
been  carefully  instructed  by  the  American  Minister  was  I 
must  never  turn  my  back  upon  the  King,  that  I  must  not 
lead  ofFin  any  conversation,  that  I  must  let  the  King  sug- 
gest the  subjects  to  be  discussed,  and  not  take  the  initiative 
in  raising  any  question  for  discussion.  I  tried  to  follow 
Minister  Egan's  instructions  in  this  regard  as  well  as  I 
could,  but  I  fear  I  was  not  wholly  successful. 

"I  had  not  been  talking  with  the  King  many  minutes  be- 

154 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

fore  I  found  that  he  was  perfectly  familiar  with  the  work  of 
the  Tuskegee  school,  that  he  had  read  much  that  I  had  writ- 
ten, and  was  well  acquainted  with  all  that  I  was  trying  to  do 
for  the  Negroes  in  the  South.  He  referred  to  the  fact  that 
Denmark  was  interested  in  the  colored  people  in  their  own 
colony  in  the  Danish  West  Indies,  and  that  both  he  and  the 
Queen  were  anxious  that  something- be  done  for  the  colored 
people  in  the  Danish  possessions  similar  to  what  we  were 
doing  at  Tuskegee,  He  added  that  he  hoped  at  some  time 
I  would  find  it  possible  to  visit  the  Danish  West  Indian 
Islands. 

"As  I  have  said,  I  had  been  warned  as  to  what  might  be 
the  result  of  this  visit  to  the  King  and  that  I  had  best  be 
careful  how  I  made  my  plans  for  the  evening.  As  the 
interview  was  closing,  the  King  took  me  by  the  hand  and 
said,  'The  Queen  would  be  pleased  to  have  you  dine 
at  the  palace  to-night,'  at  the  same  time  naming  the 
hour. 

"The  Minister  had  told  me  that  this  was  his  way  of 
commanding  persons  to  dine,  and  that  an  invitation  given 
must  be  obeyed.  Of  course  I  was  delighted  to  accept  the 
invitation,  though  I  feared  it  would  wreck  my  plans  for 
seeing  the  country  people.  The  King  was  so  kind  and  put 
me  so  at  my  ease  in  his  presence  that  I  fear  I  forgot  Min- 
ister Eagan's  warning  not  to  turn  my  back  upon  him,  and  I 
must  confess  that  I  got  out  of  the  room  in  about  the  same 
way  I  usually  go  out  of  the  room  when  I  have  had  an 
audience  with  President  Taft. 

"Leaving  the  King  and  the  palace,  I  found  out  on  the 
street  quite  a  group  of  newspaper  people,  most  of  them  rep- 
resenting American  papers,  who  were  very  anxious  to 
know,  in  the  usual  American  fashion,  just  what  took  place 
during  the  interview,  how  long  I  was  with  the  King,  what 
we  talked  about,  and  what  not.     They  were  especially 

155 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

anxious  to  know  if  I  had  been  invited  to  the  palace  for 
dinner." 

And  further  on  he  thus  describes  the  dinner: 

"The  dinner  was  not  at  the  palace  where  I  was  received 
in  the  morning,  but  at  the  summer  palace  several  miles  out 
of  Copenhagen.  When  I  reached  the  hotel  from  the 
country  it  soon  dawned  upon  me  that  I  was  in  great 
danger  of  being  late.  To  keep  a  King  and  Queen  and 
their  guests  waiting  on  one  for  dinner  would  of  course  be  an 
outrageous  offense.  I  dressed  as  hastily  as  I  was  able,  but 
just  as  I  was  putting  on  the  finishing  touches  to  my  cos- 
tume my  white  tie  bursted.  I  was  in  a  predicament  from 
which  for  a  moment  I  saw  no  means  of  rescuing  myself. 
I  did  not  have  time  to  get  another  tie,  and  of  course  I  could 
not  wear  the  black  one.  As  well  as  I  could,  however,  I  put 
the  white  tie  about  my  neck,  fastened  it  with  a  pin,  and 
earnestly  prayed  that  it  might  remain  in  decent  position 
until  the  dinner  was  over.  Nevertheless,  I  trembled  all 
through  the  dinner  for  fear  that  my  tie  might  go  back  on 
me. 

"I  succeeded  in  reaching  the  summer  palace  about  ten 
minutes  before  the  time  to  go  into  the  dining-room.  Here 
again  I  was  met  by  the  King's  Chamberlain  by  whom  I 
was  conveyed  through  a  series  of  rooms  and,  finally,  into 
the  presence  of  the  King,  who,  after  some  conversation, 
led  me  where  the  Queen  was  standing  and  presented  me  to 
her.  The  Queen  received  me  graciously  and  even  cordially. 
She  spoke  English  perfectly,  and  seemed  perfectly  familiar 
with  my  work.  I  had,  however,  a  sneaking  idea  that  Min- 
ister Egan  was  responsible  for  a  good  deal  of  the  familiarity 
which  both  the  King  and' Queen  seemed  to  exhibit  regard- 
ing Tuskegee. 

156 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

"As  I  entered  the  reception-room  there  were  about 
twenty  or  twenty-five  people  who  were  to  be  entertained  at 
dinner.  I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  elegance,  not  to 
say  splendor,  of  everything  in  connection  with  the  dinner. 
As  I  ate  food  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  out  of  gold  dishes, 
I  could  not  but  recall  the  time  when  as  a  slave  boy  I  ate  my 
syrup  from  a  tin  plate. 

"I  think  I  got  through  the  dinner  pretty  well  by  follow- 
ing my  usual  custom,  namely,  of  watching  other  people  to 
see  just  what  they  did  and  what  they  did  not  do.  There 
was  one  place,  however,  where  I  confess  I  made  a  failure. 
It  is  customary  at  the  King's  table,  as  is  true  at  other 
functions  in  many  portions  of  Europe,  I  understand,  to 
drink  a  silent  toast  to  the  King.  This  was  so  new  and 
strange  to  me  that  I  decided  that,  since  I  did  not 
understand  the  custom,  the  best  thing  was  to  frankly 
confess  my  ignorance.  I  reassured  myself  with  the  re- 
flection that  people  will  easier  pardon  ignorance  than 
pretense. 

"At  a  certain  point  during  the  dinner  each  guest  is  ex- 
pected, it  seems,  to  get  the  eye  of  the  King  and  then  rise 
and  drink  to  the  health  of  the  King.  When  he  rises  he 
makes  a  bow  to  the  King  and  the  King  returns  the  bow. 
Nothing  is  said  by  either  the  King  or  the  guest.  I  think 
practically  all  the  invited  guests  except  myself  went 
through  this  performance.  It  seemed  to  me  a  very  fitting 
way  of  expressing  respect  for  the  King,  as  the  head  of  a 
nation  and  as  a  man,  and  now  that  I  know  something 
about  it,  I  think  if  I  had  another  chance  I  could  do  myself 
credit  in  that  regard. 

"  During  the  dinner  I  had  the  privilege  of  meeting  a  very 
interesting  old  gentleman,  now  some  eighty  years  of  age, 

the  uncle  of  the  King,  Prince  ,  who  spoke  good 

English.     I  had  a  very  interesting  conversation  with  him, 

157 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

and  since  returning  to  America  I  have  had  some  corres- 
pondence with  him. 

"As  I  have  already  said,  the  Queen  Mother  of  England 
was  at  this  time  in  Copenhagen,  and  as  I  afterward  learned, 
her  sister,  the  Queen  Mother  of  Russia,  was  also  there.  As 
both  of  these  were  in  mourning  on  account  of  the  recent 
death  of  King  Edward,  they  did  not  appear  at  this  dinner. 
I  was  reminded  of  their  presence,  however,  when  as  I  was 
leaving  the  King's  palace  after  my  interview  in  the  morn- 
ing, one  of  the  marshals  presented  me  with  two  auto- 
graph books,  with  the  request  that  I  inscribe  my  name  in 
them.  One  of  the  books,  as  I  afterward  learned,  belonged 
to  the  Queen  Mother  of  England;  the  other  belonged  to 
the  Queen  Mother  of  Russia. 

A  mere  catalogue  of  the  principal  organizations  which 
Booker  T.  Washington  founded  for  the  purpose  of  helping 
his  people  to  help  themselves  tells  a  story  of  constructive 
achievement  more  impressive  than  any  amount  of  abstract 
eulogy. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  such  organizations  given  in 
chronological  order  with  a  few  words  of  description  for  the 
purpose  of  identifying  each: 

In  1884  he  founded  the  Teachers'  Institute,  consisting  of 
summer  courses,  conferences,  and  exhibits  having  as  their 
main  purpose  the  extension  of  the  advantages  of  Tuskegee 
Institute  to  the  country  school  teachers  of  the  surrounding 
country.  The  work  of  this  Institute  is  described  in  the 
chapter:  "Washington,  the  Educator." 
r — In  1 891  he  established  the  Annual  Tuskegee  Negro  Con- 
ference. He  decided  that  the  school  should  not  only  help 
158 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

directly  its  own  students,  but  should  reach  out  and  help  the 
students'  parents  and  the  older  people  generally  in  the 
country  districts  of  the  State.  He  started  by  inviting  the 
farmers  and  their  wives  in  the  immediate  locality  to  spend 
a  day  at  the  school  for  the  frank  discussion  of  their  ma- 
terial and  spiritual  condition  to  the  end  that  the  school 
might  learn  how  it  could  best  help  them  to  help  themselves. 
From  this  simple  beginning  the  Conference  has  grown  until 
it  now  consists  of  delegates  from  every  Southern  State,  be- 
sides hundreds  of  teachers  and  principals  of  Negro  schools, 
Northern  men  and  women,  publicists  and  philanthropists, 
newspaper  and  magazine  writers,  Southern  white  men  and 
Southern  white  women,  all  interested  in  helping  the  simple 
black  folk  in  their  strivings  to  "quit  libin'  in  de  ashes,"  as 
one  of  them  fervently  expressed  it.  At  one  of  these  con- 
ferences an  old  preacher  from  a  country  district  concluded 
an  earnest  prayer  for  the  deliverance  of  his  people  from  the 
bondage  of  ignorance  with  this  startling  sentence:  "And 
now,  0  Lord,  put  dy  foot  down  in  our  hearts  and  HP  us 
up!" 

The  year  following  Mr.  Washington  established  a  hos- 
pital in  Greenwood  village,  the  hamlet  adjoining  the  In- 
stitute grounds  where  live  most  of  the  teachers,  officers,  and 
employees.  It  was  at  first  hardly  more  than  a  dispensary, 
but  when  the  Institute  acquired  a  Resident  Physician  two 
small  buildings  were  set  aside  as  hospitals  for  men  and 
women,  respectively.  Later  a  five-thousand-dollar  build- 
ing was  given  which  served  as  the  hospital  until,  in  1913, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  A.  Mason,  of  Boston,  presented  Tuskegee 

159 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

with  a  fifty-thousand-dollar  splendidly  equipped  modern 
hospital,  in  memory  of  her  grandfather,  John  A.  Andrew, 
the  War  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  While  these  hos- 
pitals, from  the  first  humble  dispensary  to  the  fine  hospital 
of  to-day,  were  of  course  primarily  for  the  Institute  they 
were  in  true  Tuskegee  fashion  thrown  open  to  all  who 
needed  them.  And  since  the  town  of  Tuskegee  has  no 
hospital  they  have  always  been  freely  used  by  outside 
colored  people.  Mr.  Washington,  himself,  on  his  riding 
and  hunting  trips  would  from  time  to  time  find  sick  people 
whom  he  would  have  brought  to  the  hospital  for  care. 

The  next  year,  1893,  he  started  the  Minister's  Night 
School.  This  is  conducted  by  the  Phelps  Hall  Bible 
Training  School  of  the  Institute.  Here  country  ministers 
with  large  families  and  small  means  are  given  night 
courses  in  all  the  subjects  likely  to  be  of  service  to  them 
from  "Biblical  criticism"  to  the  "planting  and  cultivating 
of  crops." 

The  year  following  Mrs.  Washington  began  the  Tuske- 
gee Town  Mothers'  Meetings.  Both  she  and  Mr.  Wash- 
ington had  long  been  distressed  at  seeing  the  women  and 
young  girls  loafing  about  the  streets  of  the  town  of  Tuske- 
gee when  they  came  to  town  with  their  husbands  and 
fathers  on  Saturday  afternoons.  Now,  instead  of  loafing 
about  the  streets  these  women  attend  the  Mothers'  Meet- 
ings where  Mrs.  Washington  and  the  various  women 
teachers  give  them  practical  talks  on  all  manner  of  house- 
keeping and  family-raising  problems  from  the  making  of 
preserves  to  proper  parental  care. 
160 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

In  1895  the  Building  and  Loan  Association  was  estab- 
lished. The  Institute's  chief  accountant  is  its  president, 
and  the  Institute's  treasurer  its  secretary  and  treasurer. 
This  Association  has  enabled  many  scores  of  people  to 
secure  their  own  homes  who  without  its  aid  could  not  have 
done  so. 

The  next  year  the  Town  Night  School  was  started.  This 
school  has  as  its  purpose  giving  instruction  to  the  boys  and 
girls  who  have  positions  in  the  town  which  make  it  im- 
possible for  them  to  attend  the  Institute,  and  to  the  ser- 
vants in  the  white  families.  This  school  has  become  one  of 
the  best  and  strongest  forces  in  the  life  of  the  community. 
As  an  outgrowth  of  it  came  later  the  Town  Library  and 
Reading  Room,  for  which  Mr.  Washington  personally 
provided  the  room.  There  is  now  in  this  school  a  cooking 
class  for  girls  and  several  industrial  classes  for  boys.  At 
the  same  time  Mr.  Washington  established  a  Farmers'  In- 
stitute which  is  described  in  the  chapter  "Washington  and 
the  Negro  Farmer." 

In  1898  he  started  a  County  Fair  to  spur  the  ambition  of 
the  Negro  farmers  of  the  county.  This  Negro  County 
Fair  under  his  guidance  grew  and  flourished  from  year  to 
year.  The  whites  maintained  a  separate  County  Fair. 
Finally  the  two  fairs  were  combined,  and  now  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  County  Fairs  in  all  the  South  is  conducted, 
both  races  supporting  it  by  making  exhibits,  and  sharing  in 
the  success  and  profits  of  the  enterprise,  as  well  as  in  its 
general  management. 

In    1900   he   organized   the  National   Negro   Business 

161 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

League,  as  described  in  the  chapter,  "Washington  and  the 
Negro  Business  Man." 

Two  years  later  he  established  the  Greenwood  Village 
Improvement  Association  for  the  little  community  which 
has  grown  up  around  the  school.  Taxes  are  collected  from 
the  property  holders  as  well  as  the  renters  for  the  upkeep 
of  the  roads,  bridges,  and  fences,  and  a  park  in  the  centre  of 
the  village,  which  was  introduced  in  emulation  of  the 
typical  New  England  village.  Just  as  in  New  England, 
also,  this  central  park,  or  "green,"  is  surrounded  by  a  num- 
ber of  churches.  An  elective  Board  of  Control  presides 
over  this  village,  settles  disputes,  and  keeps  the  community 
in  good  repair  morally  and  spiritually,  as  well  as  physically. 
On  the  Monday  immediately  following  the  close  of  a  regu- 
lar school  term  a  town  meeting  is  held  at  which  reports  are 
read  and  discussed  covering  every  phase  of  the  life  of  the 
community.  Mr.  Washington  particularly  enjoyed  pre- 
siding at  these  meetings  because  they  demonstrated  what 
the  people  of  his  race  could  accomplish  under  a  favorable 
and  stimulating  environment.  He  always  contrived  to 
have  the  meetings  followed  by  simple  refreshments  and  a 
social  hour. 

In  1904  he  started  the  Rural  School  Improvement  Cam- 
paign and  the  Farmers'  Short  Course  at  the  Institute,  both 
of  which  are  described  in  the  chapter,  "Washington,  the 
Educator."  In  the  same  year  he  started  a  systematic 
effort  to  improve  the  conditions  in  the  jails  and  the  chain 
gangs  and  for  the  rehabilitation  of  released  prisoners. 

The  next  year  he  founded  a  weekly  farm  paper,  a  cir- 
162 


GETTING  CLOSE  TO  THE  PEOPLE 

culating  library,  and  a  Ministers'  Institute.  The  year 
after,  1906,  the  Jesup  Agricultural  Wagon — the  agri- 
cultural school  on  wheels,  which  is  described  in  the  chap- 
ter, "Washington,  the  Educator" — was  started.  In  1907 
the  farmers'  cooperative  demonstration  work,  which  has 
also  been  mentioned,  was  inaugurated.  In  1910  the  rural 
improvement  speaking  tours  began.  And  finally,  in  1914, 
he  established  "Baldwin  Farms,"  the  farming  community 
for  the  graduates  of  the  agricultural  department  of  Tus- 
kegee,  which  also  has  been  previously  described. 

These,  then,  are  some  of  the  tangible  means  which 
Booker  Washington  developed  during  a  period  of  thirty 
years  for  keeping  in  touch  with  his  people  and  for  keeping 
his  people  in  touch  with  one  another  and  with  all  the 
things  which  go  to  make  up  wholesome  and  useful  living. 


163 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

BOOKER  WASHINGTON  AND   THE   NEGRO 

FARMER 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON  was  a  great  believer  in  the 
experience  meeting,  and  the  Tuskegee  Negro  Conference, 
which  he  started  in  1891,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an 
agricultural  experience  meeting.  He  placed  his  faith  in  the 
persuasive  power  of  example — in  the  contagion  of  successful 
achievement.  He  once  said:  "One  farm  bought,  one  house 
built,  one  home  sweetly  and  intelligently  kept,  one  man  who 
is  the  largest  taxpayer  or  has  the  largest  bank  account,  one 
school  or  church  maintained,  one  factory  running  success- 
fully, one  truck  garden  profitably  cultivated,  one  patient 
cured  by  a  Negro  doctor,  one  sermon  well  preached,  one 
office  well  filled,  one  life  cleanly  lived — these  will  tell  more 
in  our  favor  than  all  the  abstract  eloquence  that  can  be 
summoned  to  plead  our  cause.  Our  pathway  must  be  up 
through  the  soil,  up  through  swamps,  up  through  forests, 
up  through  the  streams,  the  rocks,  up  through  commerce, 
education,  and  religion." 

Nothing  delighted  Mr.  Washington  more  than  the  suc- 
cessful Negro  farmers  who  had  started  in  life  without 
money,  friends,  influence,  or  education — with  literally 
nothing  but  their  hands.  At  one  of  the  Tuskegee  confer- 
164 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

ences  not  many  years  ago  his  keen  eyes  spotted  such  a 
man  in  the  audience  and  he  called  to  him  in  his  straight 
from  the  shoulder  manner:  "Get  up  and  tell  us  what  you 
have  been  doing  as  a  farmer." 

A  tall,  finely  built,  elderly  man,  looking  almost  like  a 
Nubian  giant,  arose  in  his  place,  his  face  wreathed  in 
smiles,  and  showing  his  white  teeth  as  he  spoke:  "Doctor, 
I  done  'tended  one  o'  yore  conferences  here  'bout  ten  year 
ago.  I  heard  you  say  dat  a  man  ain't  wurth  nuthin'  as 
a  man  or  a  citizen  'less  he  owns  his  home,  'least  one  mule, 
and  has  a  bank  account,  an'  so  I  made  up  my  mind  dat 
I  warn't  wuth  nuthin',  an'  so  I  went  home  an'  talked  de 
whole  matter  over  wid  de  ol'  woman.  We  decided  dat  we 
would  make  a  start,  an'  now  I's  proud  to  tell  you  dat  I's 
not  only  got  a  bank  account,  but  I's  got  two  bank  ac- 
counts, an'  heah's  de  bank  books  (proudly  holding  on 
high  two  grimy  bank  books);  I  also  own  two  hun'ed  acres 
of  land  an'  all  de  land  is  paid  for.  I  also  own  two  mules, 
an'  bofe  dem  mules  is  paid  for.  I  also  own  some  other 
property,  an'  de  ole  woman  an'  me  an'  de  chilluns  lives  in 
a  good  house  an'  de  house  is  paid  for.  All  dis  come  'bout 
from  my  comin'  to  dis  heah  conference." 

Another  old  fellow,  when  called  upon  to  tell  what  he 
had  accomplished,  dexterously  evaded  the  direct  inquiry 
for  some  minutes,  and  when  Mr.  Washington  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  pinning  him  down,  said:  "All  I's  got  to  say, 
Doctah  Washington,  is  dat  dis  heah  conference  dun  woke 
me  up  an'  I'll  be  back  heah  next  year  wid  a  report  gist 
like  dese  oder  fellers." 

165 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Mr.  Washington  was  a  great  believer  in  his  favorite 
animal,  the  pig,  as  a  mortgage  lifter  and  general  aid  to 
prosperity.  At  one  of  the  conferences,  after  he  had  paid 
a  particularly  warm  eulogy  to  the  economic  importance 
of  the  pig,  an  old  woman  got  up  and  said:  "Mr.  Wash- 
ington, you  is  got  befo'  you  now  Sister  Nelson  of  Talla- 
poosa County,  Alabama.  All  I  has  I  owes  to  dis  confer- 
ence and  one  little  puppy  dog." 

Mr.  Washington  challenged:  "How's  that?" 

The  old  woman  continued:  "I  got  a  little  pig  from  dat 
little  puppy  dog  an'  I  got  my  prosperity  from  dat  pig!" 

Mr.  Washington  and  the  whole  company  in  amazement 
hung  upon  the  old  woman's  words  as  she  continued:  "It 
was  dis  way:  Dat  little  puppy  dog  when  she  growed  up 
had  some  little  puppies  herself.  One  day  one  o'  my  fren's 
come  by  an'  as'  me  for  one  o'  dem  puppies.  I  tol'  him 
'No,'  I  would  not  gib  him  dat  puppy,  but  dat  he  had  a 
little  pig  an'  I  would  'change  a  puppy  for  a  pig.  I  had 
heard  you  tell  ober  heah  so  much  'bout  hogs  an'  pigs  dat 
I  thought  dis  was  a  good  chance  to  get  started.  He  give 
me  de  pig  an'  I  give  him  de  puppy.  In  de  course  o'  time 
dat  little  pig  dun  bring  me  in  some  mo'  pigs.  I  sol'  some 
an'  kep'  some.  I  had  to  feed  de  pig,  so  I  had  begun  savin'. 
I  den  begun  to  find  out  dat  I  could  git  on  wid  less  den  I 
had  ben  gettin'  on  wid,  an'  so  I  kep'  on  savin'  an'  kep'  on 
raisin'  pigs  'til  I  was  able  to  supply  most  o'  my  neighbors 
wid  pigs,  an'  den  I  got  me  a  cow,  an  den  I  begun  to  supply 
my  neighbors  wid  milk,  an'  den  I  started  me  a  little  garden. 
Den  I  sol'  my  neighbors  greens  an'  onions,  an'  so  I  went 
166 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

on  fum  time  to  time  'til  I  dun  paid  for  de  lot  an*  de  house 
in  which  I  lib,  an'  I  keeps  my  pigs  about  me  an'  keeps 
my  garden  goin',  an'  dat's  why  I  says  all  I  is  I  owes  to  dat 
little  puppy  dog  an'  to  dis  heah  conference." 

At  these  conferences  the  most  elementary  subjects  are 
discussed.  Booker  Washington  would  tell  and  have  told 
to  these  farmers  matters  which  one  would  naturally  assume 
any  farmers,  however  ignorant,  must  already  know.  He 
never  tried  to  deceive  himself  as  to  the  woful  ignorance 
of  the  Negro  masses,  and  still  he  was  never  discouraged, 
but  always  said  ignorance  was  not  a  hopeless  handicap 
because  it  could  be  overcome  by  education.  While  he 
frankly  although  sadly  acknowledged  the  lamentable  ig- 
norance of  the  rank  and  file  of  his  race,  particularly  those 
on  the  soil  and  dependent  for  education  upon  the  short-term, 
ill-equipped,  and  poorly  taught  rural  Negro  school,  he  as 
stoutly  denied  and  constantly  disproved  the  assertion  that 
these  ignorant  masses  were  not  capable  of  profiting  by 
education.  He  earnestly  strove  and  signally  succeeded  in 
attracting  to  these  great  annual  agricultural  conferences 
the  most  pathetically  ignorant  of  the  Negro  farmers  as 
well  as  the  leading  scientific  agriculturists  of  the  race.  But 
he  always  insisted  that  the  meetings  be  conducted  for  the 
benefit  of  the  ignorant  and  not  in  the  interests  of  the 
learned. 

He  would,  for  instance,  tell  the  attendants  at  the  con- 
ferences what  to  plant  and  when  to  plant  it,  and  what  live 
stock  to  keep  and  how  to  keep  it.  He  would  have  printed 
and   distributed   among  them   a   "Farmer's   Calendar" 

167 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

which  gave  the  months  in  which  the  various   standard 
vegetables  should  be  planted  and  what  crops  should  be 
used  in  rotation.     He  constantly  insisted  that  the  Experi- 
ment  Station   at  Tuskegee  Institute,   supported   by  the 
State  of  Alabama,  should  not  be  used  for  scientific  experi- 
ments of  interest  only  to  experts,  but  should  deal  with 
the  fundamental  problems  with  which  the  Negro  farmers 
of  Alabama  were  daily  confronted.     The  titles  of  some  of 
the  Experiment  Station  Bulletins  selected  at  random  sug- 
gest the  homely  and  practical  nature  of  the  information 
disseminated.     Half  a   dozen   of  them   read    as   follows: 
"Possibilities   of  the   Sweet    Potato   in   Macon   County, 
Alabama,"  "How  to  Grow  the  Peanut  and  105  Ways  of 
Preparing  It  for  Human  Consumption,"  "How  to  Raise 
Pigs  with  Little  Money,"   "When,  What,   and  How  to 
Can  and  Preserve  Fruits  and  Vegetables  in  the  Home," 
"Some  Possibilities  of  the   Cowpea    in   Macon   County, 
Alabama,"  "A  New  and  Proline  Variety  of  Cotton."    And 
all  of  these  bulletins,  so  many  of  which  deal  with  the  prob- 
lems of  the  home,  are  written  by  an  old  bachelor  of  pure 
African  descent,  without  a  drop  of  white  blood,  who  in 
himself  refutes  two  popular  fallacies :  the  one  that  bache- 
lors cannot  be  skilled  in  domestic  affairs,  and  the  other, 
that  pure-blooded   Africans    cannot    achieve   intellectual 
distinction.     This  man  is  George  W.  Carver,  who  is  not 
only  the  most  eminent  agricultural  scientist  of  his  race  in 
this  country,  but  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  any  race. 
His  work  is  so  well  known  in  scientific  circles  in  his  field 
throughout  the  world  that  when  leading  European  scien- 
168 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

tists  visit  this  country,  particularly  the  Southern  States, 
they  not  infrequently  go  out  of  their  way  to  look  him  up. 
They  are  usually  very  much  surprised  to  find  their  eminent 
fellow-scientist  a  black  man. 

The  last  cf  these  conferences  over  which  Booker  Wash- 
ington presided  was  held  at  Tuskegee,  January  20  and 
21,  191 5.  A  woman,  the  wife  of  a  Negro  farmer,  was  testi- 
fying when  she  said:  "Our  menfolks  is  foun'  out  dat  they 
can't  eat  cotton."  As  the  outburst  of  laughter  which 
greeted  this  remark  died  down,  Mr.  Washington  said  in 
his  incisive  way:  "What  do  you  mean?"  The  woman  re- 
plied: "I  mean  dat  we  womenfolks  been  tellin'  our  men- 
folks  all  de  time  dat  they  should  raise  mo  to  eat." 

She  then  displayed  specimens  of  canned  fruits  and  told 
how  she  had  put  up  enough  of  them  to  supply  her  family 
until  summer.  She  told  of  having  sold  thirty-six  turkeys 
and  of  selling  two  and  three  dozen  eggs  each  week,  with 
plenty  left  over  for  her  family.  She  said  that  she  and 
her  husband  had  raised  and  sold  hogs,  and  still  had  for 
their  own  use  more  than  enough  pork  to  last  them  until 
the  next  hog-killing  time. 

"  How  often  do  you  eat  chicken  ? "  asked  Dr.  Washington. 

"We  can  eat  chicken  every  day  if  we  want  it,"  she 
replied. 

When  she  had  finished  Mr.  Washington  explained  that 
all  this  had  been  done  on  178  acres  of  the  poorest  land  in 
Macon  County. 

In  his  opening  address  at  this  conference  Mr.  Wash- 
ington  denounced   "petty  thieving,   pistol-toting,   crap- 

169 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

shooting,  the  patronizing  of  'blind  tigers,'  and  unneces- 
sary lawsuits"  as  some  of  the  weights  and  encumbrances 
which  are  keeping  the  Negro  from  running  well  the  race 
which  is  set  before  him. 

These  are  some  of  the  basic  questions  which  Booker 
Washington  placed  before  the  conference  for  discussion: 

"How  and  why  am  I  so  hard  hit  by  the  present  hard 
times?" 

"What  am  I  doing  to  meet  present  conditions?" 

"How  may  I,  after  all,  get  some  real  benefit  from  present 
difficulties?" 

The  most  spectacular  feature  of  the  exercises  was  the 
parade.  It  extended  for  almost  a  mile  and  included  a 
score  or  more  of  floats,  hundreds  of  men  and  women  in 
appropriate  costumes,  and  dozens  of  horses,  mules,  and 
other  live  stock. 

There  were  a  large  number  of  colored  preachers  in 
attendance  who  showed  that  they  had  adopted  the  Wash- 
ington slogan  of  trying  to  make  a  heaven  on  earth  and 
whose  testimony  showed  that  they  were  now  giving  as 
much  time  to  soil  salvation  as  to  soul  salvation.  One 
of  them  told  of  a  flourishing  Pig  Club  which  he  had  organ- 
ized among  his  parishioners  after  reading  Mr.  Washing- 
ton's open  letter,  "Pigs  and  Education;  Pigs  and  Debts," 
the  circulating  of  which  will  be  later  described. 

After  the  awarding  of  prizes  for  the  best  floats  the 
declarations  of  the  conference  were  read  by  Major  R.  R. 
Moton  of  Hampton  Institute,  who  then  little  realized 
that  before  the  year  was  out  he  was  to  be  chosen  to  suc- 
170 


This  old  woman  was  a  regular  attendant  at  theTuskegee  Negro  Con- 
ference and  idolizingly  watched  Mr.  Washington  during  the  whole  four 
hours  that  he  would  preside  over  one  of  the  Conference  sessions 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

ceed  the  leader  of  his  race  as  the  Principal  of  Tuskegee 
Institute. 

The  following  were  the  especially  significant  paragraphs 
of  these  declarations: 

"  It  is  found  that  for  every  dollar's  worth  of  cotton  we 
grow,  we  raise  only  forty-nine  cents'  worth  of  all  other 
crops.  An  investigation  has  shown  that  there  are  20,000 
farms  of  Negroes  on  which  there  are  no  cattle  of  any  kind; 
270,000  on  which  there  are  no  hogs;  200,000  on  which  no 
poultry  is  raised;  140,000  on  which  no  corn  is  grown;  on 
750,000  farms  of  Negroes  no  oats  are  grown;  on  550,000 
farms  no  sweet  potatoes  are  grown,  and  on  200,000  farms 
of  Negroes  there  are  no  gardens  of  any  sort.  These  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  farms  without  cattle,  grain,  or  gar- 
dens are  for  the  most  part  operated  by  tenants.  In  their 
behalf,  the  Tuskegee  Negro  Conference  respectfully  re- 
quests of  the  planters,  bankers,  and  other  representatives 
of  the  financial  interests  of  the  South  that  more  oppor- 
tunities be  given  Negro  tenants  on  plantations  to  grow 
crops  other  than  cotton." 

After  the  regular  conference  the  usual  Conference  of 
Workers  was  held.  This  conference  is  composed  of  people 
such  as  heads  of  schools  and  colleges,  preachers,  teachers, 
and  persons  generally  holding  responsible  positions  of  lead- 
ership in  their  respective  communities.  These  leaders 
discuss  the  larger  community  problems  in  distinction 
from  individual  problems.  At  this  gathering,  for  instance, 
the  principal  of  the  County  High  School  at  Cottage 
Grove,  Ala.,  explained  how  through  diversified  farming  the 

171 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

parents  of  his  students  had  been  able  to  live  while  holding 
their  cotton  for  higher  prices. 

Some  of  the  principals  of  schools  told  how  they  had 
accepted  cotton  as  payment  of  tuition  for  some  of  their 
students.  Others  had  taken  in  payment  barrels  of  syrup, 
sacks  of  corn,  and  hogs.  All  the  schools  reported  cutting 
expenses,  by  reduction  of  their  dietary,  the  salaries  of 
teachers,  or  some  other  forms  of  retrenchment,  meaning 
sacrifice  for  students  or  teachers,  or  both,  that  the  work  of 
education  might  continue  and  weather  the  hard  times. 
In  concluding  the  conference  Booker  Washington  ex- 
plained the  terms  of  the  recently  enacted  Smith  Lever 
Act  for  Federal  aid  in  the  extension  of  agricultural  educa- 
tion throughout  the  rural  districts  of  the  country.  Thus 
ended  the  twentieth  session  of  the  great  Tuskegee  Negro 
Conference  and  the  last  session  presided  over  by  the 
Founder  of  the  Conference.  It  was  most  appropriate  that 
this,  his  last  conference,  should  have  so  unanimously  and 
effectively  applied  one  of  the  leading  tenets  of  Booker 
Washington's  teaching — namely,  the  winning  of  lasting 
profit  from  the  experiences  of  adversity. 

As  well  as  these  annual  Farmers'  Conferences  there  are 
held  at  Tuskegee  monthly  meetings  for  the  farmers  from 
the  locality  where  they  display  their  products,  tell  of  their 
successes  and  failures,  and  compare  notes  on  their  experi- 
ences all  under  the  expert  leadership,  guidance,  and  advice 
of  the  staff  of  the  agricultural  department  of  the  Institute. 
Every  month,  or  oftener,  there  is  an  agricultural  exhibit  in 
which  the  best  products  of  the  various  crops  such  as  pota- 
172 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

toes,  corn,  and  cotton  are  displayed,  and  the  methods  used 
in  their  production  explained  by  figures  and  graphic  charts. 
As  early  as  1895  Booker  Washington  started  a  campaign 
to  get  his  people  to  raise  more  pigs.  This  campaign  he 
revived  at  intervals,  and  for  the  last  time  in  the  fall  of 
1914,  when  the  whole  country  and  particularly  the  South 
was  suffering  from  the  first  acute  depression  caused  by  the 
European  War.  In  the  Southern  States  this  depression 
was,  of  course,  especially  acute  because  the  European 
market  for  cotton  was  for  the  time  being  cut  off.  As  one 
of  the  means  to  aid  his  people  in  this  trying  time  he  sent 
the  following  letter  to  the  entire  press  of  the  South  of 
both  races: 

"pigs  and  education;  pigs  and  debts" 

To  the  Editor: 

Our  race  is  in  constant  search  of  means  with  which  to 
provide  better  homes,  schools,  colleges,  and  churches,  and 
with  which  to  pay  debts.  This  is  especially  true  during 
the  hard  financial  conditions  obtaining  on  account  of  the 
European  War.  All  of  this  cannot  be  done  at  once,  but 
great  progress  can  be  made  by  a  good  strong  pull  together 
in  a  simple,  direct  manner.     How? 

There  are  1,400,000  colored  families  who  live  on  farms  or 
in  villages,  or  small  towns.  Of  this  number,  at  the  present 
time,  700,000  have  no  pigs.  I  want  to  ask  that  each 
family  raise  at  least  one  pig  this  fall.  Where  one  or  more 
pigs  are  already  owned,  I  want  to  ask  that  each  family 
raise  one  additional  pig  this  fall. 

As  soon  as  possible,  I  want  to  ask  that  this  plan  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  organization  of  a  Pig  Club  in  every  com- 

173 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

munity  where  one  does  not  already  exist.  I  want  to 
ask  that  the  matter  be  taken  up  at  once  through  families, 
schools,  churches,  and  societies,  Farmers'  Institutes,  Busi- 
ness Leagues,  etc. 

The  average  pig  is  valued  at  about  #5.  If  each  family 
adds  only  one  pig,  in  a  few  months  at  the  present  price  for 
hogs,  #10  would  be  added  to  the  wealth  of  the  owner,  and 
$14,000  to  the  wealth  of  the  colored  people.  If  each 
family  adds  two  pigs,  it  would  have  in  a  few  months  $20 
more  wealth,  and  $28,000  would  be  added  with  which  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  the  race  during  the  money  strin- 
gency created  by  the  European  War. 

Let  us  not  put  it  off,  but  organize  Pig  Clubs  everywhere. 
Give  each  boy  and  girl  an  opportunity  to  own  and  grow 
at  least  one  pig. 

[Signed]  Booker  T.  Washington, 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama. 


This  letter  was  not  only  printed  by  most  of  the  white 
papers  as  well  as  all  of  the  Negro  papers,  but  it  was  widely 
endorsed  editorially  in  the  white  as  well  as  the  black  press. 
Many  of  the  newspapers  for  whites  urged  that  the  white 
farmers  also  follow  the  suggestion.  The  granges  and 
farmers'  institutes  of  both  races  took  up  the  appeal  and 
urged.it  upon  their  members.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
through  the  publication  of  this  one  brief  letter,  sent  out  at 
just  the  right  psychological  moment,  Booker  Washington 
materially  aided  the  Southern  farmers  of  both  races  to 
tide  over  a  serious  crisis  and  materially  increased  the 
economic  wealth  of  the  entire  South.  As  he  well  knew,  the 
people  were  desperate  and  panicky  and  hence  ready  to 

174 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

follow  almost  any  lead.  In  any  ordinary  state  of  the 
public  mind  such  a  letter  could  have  produced  nothing 
like  such  an  influence.  This  well  illustrated  Booker 
Washington's  accurate  knowledge  of  and  feeling  for  the 
psychology  of  the  public  which  enabled  him  almost  with- 
out exception  to  speak  or  remain  silent  at  the  right 
times. 

Booker  Washington  was  not  only  interested  in  black 
farmers  but  white  farmers.  He  always  emphasized  the 
responsibility  of  the  farmer  as  the  builder  of  the  founda- 
tions of  society.  He  was  constantly  inviting  the  white 
farmers  of  the  surrounding  country  to  visit  the  school  and 
see  what  was  being  done  on  the  school  farms  and  by  the 
Experiment  Station.  And  the  white  farmers  availed 
themselves  freely  of  this  opportunity  and  profited  by  it. 
The  school's  veterinarian  is  probably  the  only  one  in  the 
county,  and  this  division  was  established  very  largely  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  the  school  and  the  community — 
both  white  and  black — into  closer  relation.  In  dealing 
with  farmers,  even  more  perhaps  than  with  other  classes  of 
people,  Washington  would  appeal  to  their  pride  and  even 
to  their  vanity.  He  was  fond  of  telling  them  that  they 
were  the  salt  of  the  earth.  One  of  his  favorite  stories 
was  about  the  farmer  who  keeps  his  best  potatoes  for  him- 
self and  his  family  and  sends  the  speckled  ones  to  town; 
keeps  his  tender  young  chickens  and  sends  the  old  tough 
ones  to  town;  keeps  his  rich  milk  and  sends  his  skimmed 
milk  to  town.  While  there  may  never  have  been  quite 
such  a  farmer  the  story  had  its  element  of  truth,  and 

175 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

helped  to  make  the  farmer  appreciate  his  good  fortune 
and  his  importance  in  the  scheme  of  things. 

In  1910,  when  the  last  Federal  Census  was  taken,  503 
Negro  farm  owners  in  Macon  County,  Booker  Washing- 
ton's home  county,  owned  61,689  acres,  or  an  average  of 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  and  one-half 
acres  of  land  per  man.  This  is  probably  the  largest 
amount  of  land  owned  by  the  Negroes  of  any  county  in 
the  United  States.  Certainly  this  was  true  at  that  time. 
The  better  class  of  Negro  farmers  has  greatly  increased 
during  the  past  thirty  years  until  at  present  from  90  to 
95  per  cent,  of  the  3,800  Negro  farmers  in  the  county 
operate  their  own  farms  either  as  cash  tenants  or  owners. 
The  increase  in  the  number  of  Negroes  owning  or  operating 
farms  has  been  an  important  factor  in  securing  a  better 
quality  and  variety  of  food.  They  have  diversified  their 
crops  and  raised  a  larger  amount  of  their  own  food  supplies, 
particularly  meat  and  vegetables,  and  they  have  produced 
more  milk,  butter,  and  eggs.  It  will  be  seen  that  Booker 
Washington's  voice  when  he  reiterated  over  and  over 
again,  "The  man  who  owns  the  land  will  own  much  else 
besides,"  did  not  fall  upon  deaf  ears. 

When  Booker  Washington  came  to  Macon  County  and 
founded  Tuskegee  Institute,  in  188 1,  the  soil  was  worn  out, 
and  cotton,  the  chief  crop,  was  selling  for  an  almost  con- 
stantly lowering  price.  Although  there  were  few  counties 
with  a  lower  yield  of  cotton  per  acre,  one-quarter  of  a  bale, 
over  42  per  cent,  of  the  tilled  land  of  the  county  was 
devoted  exclusively  to  this  crop.  Very  little  machinery 
176 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

was  used  in  the  farming,  the  antique  scooter  plow  and 
hoe  being  the  main  reliance.  The  soil  was  rarely  tilled 
more  than  three  or  four  inches  deep.  There  was,  in  fact,  a 
superstition  among  whites  as  well  as  blacks  that  deep 
plowing  was  injurious  to  the  soil.  Two-horse  teams  were 
seldom  used.  Sub-soiling,  fall  plowing,  fallowing,  and 
rotation  of  crops  were  little  known  and  less  practised. 
The  county  was  producing  per  capita  per  year  only  about 
five  pounds  of  butter,  four  dozen  eggs,  and  less  than  three 
chickens. 

The  Negroes  were  with  few  exceptions  shiftless  and 
improvident  plantation  laborers  and  renters.  Of  the 
almost  13,000  Negroes  in  the  county  not  more  than  fifty 
or  sixty  owned  land.  They  lived  almost  exclusively  in 
one-room  cabins.  Sometimes  in  addition  to  the  immediate 
family  there  were  relatives  and  friends  living  and  sleeping 
in  this  one  room.  The  common  diet  of  these  Negroes  was 
fat  pork,  corn  bread,  and  molasses.  Many  meals  consisted 
of  corn  bread  mixed  with  salt  water.  This,  then,  was  the 
raw  material  with  which  Booker  Washington  had  to  work 
and  from  which  has  been  developed,  largely  through  his 
influence,  one  of  the  most  prosperous  agricultural  counties 
in  the  South — a  county  which  has  been  heralded  in  the 
press  as  feeding  itself  because  of  the  great  abundance  and 
variety  of  its  products.  In  1910  the  per  capita  production 
for  the  county  was :  40  gallons  of  milk,  1 1  pounds  of  butter, 
7  dozen  eggs,  and  5  chickens.  It  must,  of  course,  do  more 
than  this  before  it  will  actually  feed  itself. 

Mr.  Washington  was  constantly  drumming  it  into  the 

177 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

« 

consciousness  of  the  Negro  farmer  that  as  long  as  he 
remained  ignorant  and  improvident  he  was  sure  to  be  ex- 
ploited and  imposed  upon.  He  used  to  illustrate  this  by 
the  story  of  the  ignorant  Negro  who  after  paying  a  white 
man  fifty  cents  a  week  for  six  months  on  a  five-dollar  loan 

cheerfully  remarked:     "Dat  Mr.  sho  is  one  fine 

gen'lman,  cause  he  never  has  ast  me  fo'  one  cent  ob  dat 
principal."  It  may  be  surmised  that  this  type  of  money 
lender  is  not  enthusiastic  over  Negro  education. 

It  is  significant  of  the  importance  which  Booker  Wash- 
ington attached  to  agriculture  that  the  first  great  Federal 
official  whom  he  invited  to  visit  the  school  was  the  Na- 
tional Secretary  of  Agriculture.  In  1897  he  got  the  Hon. 
James  Wilson,  Secretary  of  Agriculture  in  President 
McKinley's  Cabinet,  to  visit  Tuskegee  and  attend  the 
dedication  of  the  school's  first  agricultural  building. 

Secretary  Wilson  arrived  at  night  accompanied  by 
Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  a  Southerner,  a  leader  of  the  educa- 
tional thought  of  the  South,  and  the  secretary  of  the 
John  F.  Slater  Fund  Board.  The  students  lined  up  on 
either  side  of  the  main  thoroughfare  through  the  school 
grounds  with  back  of  them  a  great  gathering  of  the  farm- 
ers from  the  surrounding  territory  and  many  from  a  dis- 
tance. Each  one  of  this  great  throng  was  given  a  pine 
torch  and  all  these  torches  were  simultaneously  lighted 
as  Secretary  Wilson  entered  the  school  grounds.  The  Secre- 
tary and  Doctor  Curry,  preceded  by  the  Institute  Band, 
rode  between  these  two  great  masses  of  cheering  people 
and  flaming  torches. 
178 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

The  next  day  the  dedication  exercises  were  held  on  a 
specially  constructed  platform  piled  high  with  the  finest 
specimens  of  every  product  known  to  that  section  of  the 
South.  On  this  platform,  with  the  Secretary  and  Doctor 
Curry,  were  the  State  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  and 
several  other  high  State  officials  and  many  other  promi- 
nent white  citizens.  This  was  the  formal  launching  of 
the  Agricultural  Department  of  the  school.  George  W. 
Carver,  the  full-blooded  African  and  eminent  agricultural 
scientist,  of  whom  mention  has  already  been  made,  had 
recently  been  placed  in  charge  of  this  department.  He 
had  come  from  the  Agricultural  Department  of  Iowa 
State  College,  of  which  Secretary  Wilson  had  been  the 
head. 

The  annual  budget  of  this  department  alone  is  now 
nearly  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  more  than  a 
thousand  acres  of  land  are  cultivated  under  the  supervision 
of  the  agricultural  staff.  The  modest  building  which 
Secretary  Wilson  helped  to  dedicate  has  long  since  been 
outgrown  and  the  department  is  now  housed  in  a  large, 
impressive  brick  building  known  as  the  Millbank  Agri- 
cultural Building. 

Under  the  provisions  of  the  Smith-Lever  Act,  passed 
by  Congress  in  1914  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  States 
in  Agricultural  Extension  Work,  Booker  Washington 
secured  for  Tuskegee  a  portion  of  the  funds  allotted  to 
the  State  of  Alabama  for  such  work.  With  the  aid  of  these 
funds  Agricultural  Extension  Schools  have  been  organized. 
These   schools    are   conducted   in   cooperation   with   the 

179 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Agricultural  Department  of  the  Alabama  Polytechnic 
Institute  and  the  farm  demonstration  work  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  They  are  really  a 
two  days'  Short  Course  in  Agriculture  carried  out  to  the 
farmers  on  their  own  farms.  These  schools  have  the 
advantage  over  the  Short  Course  given  to  the  farmers  on 
the  Institute  grounds  in  that  they  have  the  farmers'  prob- 
lems right  before  them,  to  be  diagnosed  and  remedies 
applied  at  once.  Through  such  schools  farm  instruction 
is  being  carried  to  the  Negroes  of  every  Black  Belt  County 
of  Alabama. 

T.  M.  Campbell  of  the  Tuskegee  Institute,  the  District 
Agent  in  charge  of  these  Extension  Schools  for  the  Negro 
Farmers  of  Alabama,  reports  that  among  the  subjects 
taught  the  men  are  home  gardening,  seed  selection,  repair 
of  farm  tools,  the  growing  of  legumes  as  soil  builders  and 
cover  crops,  best  methods  of  fighting  the  boll-weevil, 
poultry  raising,  hog  raising,  corn  raising,  and  pasture  mak- 
ing. The  women  are  instructed  in  sewing,  cooking,  wash- 
ing and  ironing,  serving  meals,  making  beds,  and  methods 
for  destroying  household  pests  and  for  the  preservation 
of  health.  At  all  the  meetings  the  names  and  addresses 
of  those  present  are  taken  for  the  purpose  of  following 
them  up  by  correspondence  from  the  district  agent's 
office,  so  that  the  benefits  of  the  instruction  shall  not  be 
lost  from  one  year  to  another.  The  slogan  for  these 
Alabama  schools  is:  "Alabama  Must  Feed  Herself." 
Practically  all  the  black  farmers  have  shown  a  pathetic 
eagerness  to  learn  and  the  white  farmers  and  the  white 
1 80 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

demonstration  agents  everywhere  have  heartily  cooper- 
ated. Churches,  schoolhouses,  and  courthouses  have  been 
placed  at  the  district  agent's  disposal  for  the  Extension 
School  session.  One  of  the  most  hopeful  features  of  the 
experiment  has  been  the  great  interest  in  this  new  and 
better  farming  aroused  among  the  boys  and  girls — an 
interest  which  the  ordinary  rural  school  sadly  fails  even 
in  attempting  to  arouse.  All  told  throughout  the  State 
3,872  colored  people  attended  these  schools  the  first  year. 
The  sessions  were  usually  opened  by  a  prayer  offered  by 
one  of  the  rural  preachers.  In  one  such  prayer  the 
preacher  said  among  other  things:  "O  Lord,  have  mercy 
on  dis  removable  school;  may  it  purmernate  dis  whole  Ian* 
an'  country!"  At  another  meeting,  after  the  workers 
had  finished  a  session,  some  of  the  leading  colored  farmers 
were  called  on  to  speak.  One  of  them  opened  his  remarks 
with  the  words:  "I  ain't  no  speaker,  but  I  jes  wan'  a  tell 
you  how  much  I  done  been  steamilated  by  dis  my  only 
two  days  in  school!" 

A  report  of  one  of  these  schools  held  recently  at  Monroe- 
ville,  Ala.,  reads:  "Only  subjects  with  which  the  rural 
people  are  directly  concerned  are  introduced  and  stressed 
by  the  instructors,  such  as  pasture  making,  necessary 
equipment  for  a  one  and  two  horse  farm,  care  of  farm 
tools,  crop  rotation,  hog  raising,  care  of  the  cow,  seed 
selection,  diversified  farming,  how  to  make  homemade 
furniture,  fighting  the  fly,  and  child  welfare. 

"The  home  economics  teacher  attracted  the  attention 
of  all  the  colored  farmers  and  also  the  white  visitors  by 

181 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

constructing  out  of  dry  goods  boxes  an  attractive  and 
substantial  dresser  and  washstand,  completing  the  same 
before  the  audience,  even  to  the  staining,  varnishing, 
hanging  the  mirrors  and  attaching  the  draperies."  One 
paper,  in  estimating  the  value  of  these  Movable  Agri- 
cultural Schools  said:  "Given  ten  years  of  good  practical 
agricultural  instruction  of  the  kind  that  was  imparted 
to  the  Negro  farmers,  their  wives  and  children,  for  the 
past  three  weeks  in  Wilcox,  Perry,  and  Lowndes  counties, 
there  is  no  reason  why  every  Negro  farmer  in  the  State 
should  not  only  help  'Alabama  feed  herself,'  but  so  in- 
crease the  yield  of  its  marketable  products  that  the  State 
will  be  able  to  export  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  food  and 
foodstuffs  each  year." 

These  Extension  Schools  are  advertised  by  posters  just 
like  a  country  circus,  except  that  the  language  is  less 
grandiloquent.  On  the  following  page  is  a  typical  an- 
nouncement presented  in  heavy  black  type  on  yellow  paper. 

Thus  did  Booker  Washington  in  the  very  year  of  his 
death,  with  the  aid  of  the  National  Government,  launch 
the  last  of  his  many  means  for  helping  the  people  whose 
welfare  lay  ever  nearest  his  heart — the  Negro  farmers. 
These  Extension  Schools  are  literally  "going  out  'into  the 
by-ways  and  hedges'"  carrying  to  those  who  most  need  it 
Booker  Washington's  gospel  of  better  farming. 

One  of  the  great  secrets  of  Mr.  Washington's  success  was 
his  unerring  instinct  for  putting  first  things  first.  In 
nothing  that  he  did  was  this  trait  better  illustrated  than 
in  the  unceasing  emphasis  which  he  placed  upon  the  fun- 
182 


THE  NEGRO  FARMER 

Co-operative  Extension  Work  in  Agriculture  and  Home  Economics 

STATE  OF  ALABAMA 

FARMERS      ATTENTION! 

AN    EXTENSION    SCHOOL 

OF 

AGRICULTURE    AND    HOME    ECONOMICS 

FOR 

COLORED  FARMERS,  BOYS,  GIRLS,  AND  WOMEN 

WILL   BE    HELD   IN    PERRY   COUNTY   AT 

MARION,    FEBRUARY    8-9 

MORNING    STAR    COMMUNITY,    FEBRUARY    11-12 

COME   AND   BRING    YOUR   FAMILY! 

THE  PROGRAM  OF  THE  SCHOOL  WILL  EMBRACE  THE  FOLLOW- 
ING SUBJECTS  AND  MANY  OTHERS. 
— FOR  MEN  AND  BOYS — 
Diversified  Farming  for  the  South,  "A  Ray  of  Hope  to  the  Man  with  the  Hoe." 
How  to  Make  the  Cotton  Farm  Fertile — Every  Farmer  Must  Feed  Himself. 
Care  and  Treatment  of  Live  Stock — "  To  Thee,  my  Master,  I  offer  my  prayer; 

feed  me,  water  and  care  for  me,  and  when  the  day's  work  is  done,  provide  me 

with  shelter." — From  the  Horses'  Prayer. 
Cotton  Growing  under  Boll  Weevil  Conditions — Looks  like  Billie  Boll  Weevil 

is  here  to  stay. 
Waste  caused  by  weeds,  stumps  and  skips. 
Corn — Seed  testing. 

Dairying  and  Its  Possibilities  in  Alabama. 
Sweet  Potatoes — How  to  grow  and  save  them. 

— FOR  WOMEN  AND  GIRLS — 

"Home  Made  Home." — A  Home  should  be  more  than  a  place  in  which  to  eal 

and  sleep. 
The  Health  of  the  Family — Much  responsibility  rests  on  the  Mother. 
Child  Welfare — Every  4th  Negro  baby  dies  before  it  is  One  Year  Old.     Fifty 

per  cent  of  the  diseases  of  Negro  children  under  One  Year  can  be  prevented. 
The  Care  of  the  Girls  and  Boys  on  the  Farm — Make  them  your  partners  in  the 

business  of  Home  Making     . 
Demonstration  in  Cookery — Too  few  of  our  women  and  girls  know  how  to  cook. 

A  FREE  PICTURE  SHOW  WILL  BE  GIVEN  ONE  NIGHT  AT 
EVERY  MEETING  PLACE 

This  Extention  School  is  being  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Extension  Service 
of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  Alabama  Polytechnic 
Institute.  The  subjects  will  be  discussed  by  experts  from  the  Tuskegee  Nor- 
mal and  Industrial  Institute. 

T.  M.  CAMPBELL,  District  Demonstration  Agent, 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama. 

183 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

damental  importance  of  agriculture.  He  never  forgot 
that  over  80  per  cent,  of  his  people  drew  their  living  directly 
from  the  soil.  He  never  ceased  to  impress  upon  the  busi- 
ness and  professional  men  of  his  race  that  their  success 
was  dependent  upon  the  success  of  the  farmers;  and  upon 
the  farmers  that  unless  they  succeeded  the  business  and 
professional  men  could  not  succeed.  In  short,  he  made 
Tuskegee  first  and  foremost  an  agricultural  school  be- 
cause the  Negro  race  is  first  and  foremost  an  agricultural 
race. 


184 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

BOOKER  WASHINGTON  AND  THE  NEGRO 

BUSINESS    MAN 

IN  1900  Booker  Washington  founded  the  National  Negro 
Business  League.  He  was  president  of  this  league  from  its 
foundation  until  his  death. 

During  the  winter  of  1900,  after  reviewing  the  situation 
at  length  with  his  friend  T.  Thomas  Fortune,  the  nestor  of 
Negro  journalism,  and  at  that  time  the  dominant  influence 
in  the  New  York  Age,  who  was  spending  the  winter  at 
Tuskegee,  with  Mr.  Scott  and  others  of  his  friends,  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  time  had  come  to  bring  the 
business  men  and  women  of  his  race  together  in  a  great 
national  organization,  with  local  branches  throughout  the 
country.  He  decided  that  such  an  organization  might  be 
a  powerful  agency  in  creating  the  race  consciousness  and 
race  pride  for  which  he  was  ever  striving.  All  the  then- 
existing  organizations,  other  than  the  sick  and  death  bene- 
fit societies  and  the  purely  social  organizations,  had  as  their 
main  purpose  the  assertion  of  the  civil  and  political  rights 
of  the  Negro.  There  was  no  organization  calculated  to 
focus  the  attention  of  the  Negroes  on  what  they  were  do- 
ing and  could  do  for  themselves  in  distinction  from  what 
was  being  done  for  them  and  to  them.     All  the  existing 

185 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

associations  laid  their  chief  emphasis  upon  the  rights  of 
the  Negro  rather  than  his  duties.  Mr.  Washington  held 
that  without  in  any  degree  sacrificing  their  just  demands 
for  civil  and  political  rights  a  more  wholesome  and  construc- 
tive attitude  could  be  developed  by  stressing  the  duties 
and  the  opportunities  of  the  race.  He  believed  it  would 
be  helpful  to  emphasize  in  an  organized  way  what  they 
had  done  and  could  do  in  the  way  of  business  achievement 
in  spite  of  race  prejudice  rather  than  what  they  had  not 
done  and  could  not  do  because  of  racial  discrimination. 
He  believed  they  needed  to  have  brought  home  to  them 
not  how  many  of  them  had  been  held  down,  but  how  many 
of  them  had  come  up  and  surmounted  obstacles  and  diffi- 
culties. He  believed  that  they  should  have  it  impressed 
upon  them  that  the  application  of  business  methods  would 
bring  rewards  to  a  black  man  just  as  to  a  white  man. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  National  Negro  Business 
League  was  held  in  Boston,  August  23  and  24,  1900. 
After  these  sessions  Booker  Washington  made  the  follow- 
ing statement  of  the  purpose  in  calling  the  meeting  and  the 
results  obtained: 

"As  I  have  travelled  through  the  country  from  time  to 
time  I  have  been  constantly  surprised  to  note  the  number 
of  colored  men  and  women,  often  in  small  towns  and  re- 
mote districts,  who  are  engaged  in  various  lines  of  business. 
In  many  cases  the  business  was  very  humble,  but  never- 
theless it  was  sufficient  to  indicate  the  opportunities  of  the 
race  in  this  direction.  My  observation  in  this  regard  led 
me  to  believe  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  bringing  to- 
186 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

gether  of  the  leading  and  most  successful  colored  men  and 
women  throughout  the  country  who  are  engaged  in  busi- 
ness. After  consultation  with  men  and  women  in  various 
parts  of  the  country  it  was  determined  to  call  a  meeting  in 
the  city  of  Boston  to  organize  the  National  Negro  Business 
League.  This  meeting  was  held  during  the  23d  and  24th 
of  August,  and  it  was  generally  believed  that  it  was  one  of 
the  most  successful  and  helpful  meetings  that  has  ever 
been  held  among  our  people.  The  meeting  was  called 
with  two  objects  in  view:  first,  to  bring  the  men  and  women 
engaged  in  business  together,  in  order  that  they  might  get 
acquainted  with  each  other  and  get  information  and  in- 
spiration from  each  other;  secondly,  to  form  plans  for  an 
annual  meeting  and  the  organization  of  local  business 
leagues  that  should  extend  throughout  the  country.  Both 
of  these  objects,  I  think,  have  been  admirably  accom- 
plished. I  think  there  has  never  been  a  time  in  the  history 
of  the  race  when  all  feel  so  much  encouraged  in  relation 
to  their  business  opportunities  as  now.  The  promoters  of 
this  organization  appreciate  very  keenly  that  the  race 
cannot  depend  upon  mere  material  growth  alone  for  its 
ultimate  success,  but  they  do  feel  that  material  prosperity 
will  greatly  hasten  their  recognition  in  other  directions." 

The  spirit  and  purpose  of  this  first  national  convention 
of  Negro  business  men  may  be  gathered  by  this  quotation 
from  the  speech  of  J.  H.  Lewis,  a  merchant  tailor,  and  per- 
haps the  most  successful  business  man  of  the  race  at  the 
time:  "But  what  hope  has  the  Negro  to  succeed  in  busi- 
ness?" said  Mr.  Lewis.     "If  you  can  make  a  better  article 

187 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

than  anybody  else,  and  sell  it  cheaper  than  anybody  else, 
you  can  command  the  markets  of  the  world.  Produce 
something  that  somebody  else  wants,  whether  it  be  a  shoe 
string  or  a  savings  bank,  and  the  purchaser  or  patron  will 
not  trouble  himself  to  ask  who  the  seller  is.  This  same 
great  economic  law  runs  through  every  line  of  industry, 
whether  it  be  farming,  manufacturing,  mercantile  or 
professional  pursuits.  Recognize  this  fundamental  law 
of  trade;  add  to  it  tact,  good  manners,  a  resolute  will,  a 
tireless  capacity  for  hard  work,  and  you  will  succeed  in 
business.  I  have  found  in  my  own  experience  of  thirty 
years  in  business  that  success  and  its  conditions  lie  around 
us,  regardless  of  race  or  color.  I  believe  that  it  is  possible 
for  any  man  with  the  proper  stuff  in  him  to  make  a  success 
in  business  wherever  he  may  be.  The  best  and  only  capi- 
tal necessary  to  begin  with  is  simply  honesty,  industry,  and 
common  sense." 

The  Boston  Herald  of  August  24, 1900,  said  of  this  gather- 
ing: "The  national  convention  of  colored  business  men 
began  its  sessions  in  this  city  yesterday  in  a  businesslike 
and  hopeful  manner.  This  is  not  a  political  gathering.  It 
is  not  a  race  gathering  in  the  sense  of  one  met  to  air  senti- 
mental grievances  that  spring  from  race  oppositions. 
President  Washington  believes  that  the  security 
and  progress  of  the  colored  people  in  this  land  depend  upon 
their  development  of  a  moral  worth  commanding  respect 
and  an  industrial  capacity  that  will  make  them  both  use- 
ful and  independent.  He  apprehends  that  these  qualities 
cannot  be  bestowed  as  a  gift  of  benevolence,  but  must  be 
188 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

acquired  by  individual  energy  and  struggle.  'As  I  have 
noted,'  he  says,  'the  condition  of  our  people  in  nearly  every 
part  of  our  country,  I  have  always  been  encouraged  by  the 
fact  that  almost  without  exception,  whether  in  the  North 
or  in  the  South,  wherever  I  have  seen  a  black  man  who  was 
succeeding  in  his  business,  who  was  a  taxpayer,  and  who 
possessed  intelligence  and  high  character,  that  individual 
was  treated  with  the  highest  respect  by  the  members  of  the 
white  race.  In  proportion  as  we  can  multiply  those  ex- 
amples, North  and  South,  will  our  problem  be  solved/ 
That  is  the  great  lesson  that  the  members  of  the  colored 
race  have  to  learn.  It  will  aid  in  extending  this  knowl- 
edge for  those  colored  business  men  who  have  attained  a 
measurable  degree  of  success  in  life  to  meet  for  mutual 
encouragement  and  helpfulness." 

Just  fifteen  years  later,  in  August,  191 5,  Booker  Wash- 
ington presided  over  the  last  session  of  the  league  held 
during  his  lifetime.  This  meeting  also  was  held  in  Boston. 
There  attended  it  seven  hundred  delegates  from  thirty 
different  States.  Mr.  Washington  in  his  annual  address  as 
president  summed  up  what  had  been  accomplished  by  the 
race  during  the  fifteen-year  interval  and  projected  what 
they  should  strive  for  in  the  future.  He  also  took  occasion 
publicly  to  thank  his  foremost  colleagues  in  developing  the 
work  of  the  league,  particularly  Mr.  Scott,  the  secretary  of 
the  league.  Undoubtedly  he  fully  realized  that  it  was  his 
farewell  meeting.  He  practically  collapsed  before  the 
sessions  were  over.     In  less  than  three  months  he  was  dead. 

Among  other  things  he  said  in  this  speech:    "Since  the 

189 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

league  met  in  Boston  fifteen  years  ago,  great  changes  have 
taken  place  among  our  people  in  property-getting  and 
in  the  promotion  of  industrial  and  business  enterprises. 
These  changes  have  taken  place  not  solely  because  of  the 
work  of  the  league,  but  this  and  similar  organizations  have 
had  much  to  do  with  bringing  about  this  progress.  Let 
me  be  more  specific.  .  .  .  The  value  of  the  Negro's 
farm  property  alone  is  #1,142,000,000.  From  1900  to 
1910,  the  Negro's  farm  property  increased  128  per  cent. 
In  1863  we  had  as  a  race  2,000  small  business  enterprises 
of  one  kind  and  another.  At  the  present  time,  the  Negro 
owns  and  operates  about  43,000  concerns,  with  an  annual 
turnover  of  about  one  billion  dollars.  Within  fifty  years 
we  have  made  enough  progress  in  business  to  warrant  the 
operation  of  over  fifty  banks.  With  all  I  have  said,  we  are 
still  a  poor  race,  as  compared  with  many  others;  but  I  have 
given  these  figures  to  indicate  the  direction  in  which  we  are 
travelling." 

Later  he  said:  "A  landless  race  is  like  a  ship  without  a 
rudder.  Emphasizing  again  our  opportunities,  especially 
as  connected  with  the  soil,  we  now  have,  for  example,  122 
poultry  raisers;  the  number  should  be  increased  to  1,500. 
We  now  have  200  dairymen;  the  number  should  be  in- 
creased to  2,000.  .  .  .  We  now  own  and  operate  75 
bakeries;  the  number  can  be  increased  to  500.  From  32 
brickmakers  the  number  can  be  increased  to  3,000.  From 
200  sawmills  we  can  increase  the  number  to  1,000." 

And  so  he  continued  giving  the  present  achievement  and 
future  goal  for  many  more  industries.  After  giving  these 
190 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

estimates  he  said:  "With  our  race,  as  it  has  been  and  al- 
ways will  be  with  all  races,  without  economic  and  business 
foundation,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  have  educational  and 
religious  growth  or  political  freedom. 

"We  can  learn  some  mighty  serious  lessons  just  now 
from  conditions  in  Liberia  and  Hayti.  For  years,  both  in 
Liberia  and  Hayti,  literary  education  and  politics  have 
been  emphasized,  but  while  doing  this  the  people  have 
failed  to  apply  themselves  to  the  development  of  the  soil, 
mines,  and  forests.  The  result  is  that,  from  an  economic 
point  of  view,  those  two  republics  have  become  dependent 
upon  other  nations  and  races.  In  both  republics  the  con- 
trol of  finances  is  in  the  hands  of  other  nations,  this  being 
true  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  two  countries  have 
natural  resources  greater  than  other  countries  similar  in 
size.  .  .  .  Mere  abstract,  unused  education  means 
little  for  a  race  or  individual.  An  ounce  of  application  is 
worth  a  ton  of  abstraction.  We  must  not  be  afraid  to  pay 
the  price  of  success  in  business — the  price  of  sleepless 
nights,  the  price  of  toil  when  others  rest,  the  price  of  plan- 
ning to-day  for  to-morrow,  this  year  for  next  year.  If 
some  one  else  endures  the  hardships,  does  the  thinking,  and 
pays  the  salaries,  some  one  else  will  reap  the  harvest  and 
enjoy  the  reward." 

Just  before  his  closing  words  he  said:  "No  matter  how 
poor  you  are,  how  black  you  are,  or  how  obscure  your 
present  work  and  position,  I  want  each  one  to  remember 
that  there  is  a  chance  for  him,  and  the  more  difficulties 
he  has  to  overcome  the  greater  will  be  his  success." 

191 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  speech  at  this  conference, 
next  to  that  of  Booker  T.  Washington,  was  that  of  William 
Henry  Lewis  who  is  probably  the  foremost  lawyer  of  the 
Negro  race  in  America.  Mr.  Lewis  is  a  graduate  of  Har- 
vard where  he  distinguished  himself  on  the  football  field 
as  well  as  in  the  classroom.  After  graduation  from  the 
Harvard  Law  School  he  served  with  distinction  in  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature,  was  appointedlAssistant  United 
States  District  Attorney  for  the  Boston  district  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt,  and  became  Assistant  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States  under  President  Taft. 

In  opening  his  speech  Mr.  Lewis  said:  "I  do  not  know 
why  my  fellow-citizens  have  chosen  me  for  this  honor, 
except  to  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  my  head.  Fifteen  years 
ago  I  was  not  with  you.  I  was  one  of  the  critics,  one  of 
the  scoffers,  one  of  those  who  asked,  'What  is  it  all  about?' 
'What  does  it  amount  to?'  You  have  lived  to  confute 
my  judgment,  and  shame  my  sneers,  and  I  am  now  making 
generous  acknowledgment  of  my  error.  I  claim  no  merit 
in  doing  this,  except  that  I  can  look  backward  as  far  as 
your  great  leader  can  look  forward.  Booker  Washington 
has  always  been  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  ahead  of  any 
other  leader  of  his  race.  .  .  .  While  most  of  us  were 
agonizing  over  the  Negro's  relation  to  the  State  and  his 
political  fortunes,  Booker  Washington  saw  that  there  was 
a  great  economic  empire  that  needed  to  be  conquered. 
He  saw  an  emancipated  race  chained  to  the  soil  by  the 
Mortgage  Crop  System,  and  other  devices,  and  he  said, 
'You  must  own  your  own  land,  you  must  own  your  own 
192 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

farms' — and  forthwith  there  was  a  second  emancipation. 
He  saw  the  industrial  trades  and  skilled  labor  pass  from 
our  race  into  other  hands.  He  said,  'The  hands  as  well 
as  the  heads  must  be  educated,'  and  forthwith  the  educa- 
tional system  of  America  was  revolutionized.  He  saw 
the  money  earned  by  the  hard  toil  of  black  men  passing 
into  other  men's  pockets.  He  said,  'The  only  way  to 
save  this  money  is  to  go  into  business — sell  as  well  as 
buy.'  He  saw  that  if  the  colored  race  was  to  become 
economically  self-sufficient,  it  must  engage  in  every  form 
of  human  activity.  Himself  a  successful  business  man  as 
shown  by  Tuskegee's  millions,  he  has  led  his  race  to 
economic  freedom." 

Later  Mr.  Lewis  said:  "Just  as  in  Boston  three-quarters 
of  a  century  ago  began  the  movement  for  Emancipation 
from  Slavery,  so  fifteen  years  ago  appropriately  began 
the  movement  for  our  economical  independence. 
In  1900  there  was  one  league  with  50  members,  and  a  few 
businesses  represented.  To-day  I  am  told  there  are  600 
leagues,  nearly  40,000  members,  who  represent  every 
branch  and  variety  of  business,  trade  and  finance.  When 
one  realizes  that  business  rules  the  world,  the  possibility 
of  such  an  organization  seems  almost  unlimited  in  its 
power  to  help  the  race  along  other  lines  of  progress." 

Such  a  tribute  from  one  of  the  most  rarely  and  gen- 
uinely talented  members  of  "The  Talented  Tenth"  was 
indeed  a  triumph  for  Booker  T.  Washington  and  his 
policies.  In  fact,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  this  event 
marked  the  end  of  the  honest  opposition  from  this  element 

193 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

of  the  Negro  race — the  end  of  the  honest  opposition  of  a 
group  or  section  of  the  race  in  distinction  from  the  of 
course  inevitable  opposition  of  individuals  here  and  there. 

One  of  the  features  of  this  191 5  meeting  was  a  summary 
of  the  economic  progress  of  the  race  since  the  organization 
of  the  league  fifteen  years  before.  This  summary  brought 
out  the  following  facts: 

In  1900,  when  the  National  Negro  Business  League 
was  organized,  there  were  about  20,000  Negro  business 
enterprises;  now  there  are  45,000. 

In  1900  there  were  two  Negro  banks;  now  there   are 

5*. 

In  1900  Negroes  were  running  250  drug  stores;  now  they 

have  695. 

In  1900  there  were  450  undertaking  businesses  operated 
by  Negroes;  now  there  are  about  1,000. 

In  1900  there  were  149  Negro  merchants  engaged  in 
wholesale  businesses;  now  there  are  240. 

In  1900  there  were  10,000  Negro  retail  merchants;  now 
there  are  25,000. 

In  the  fifteen  years  since  the  National  Negro  Business 
League  was  organized,  farm  property  owned  by  Negroes 
has  made  a  remarkable  increase.  From  1900  to  1910,  the 
value  of  domestic  animals  owned  by  Negro  farmers  in- 
creased from  $85,216,337  to  $177,273,785,  or  107  per  cent.; 
poultry  from  $3,788,792  to  $5,113,756,  or  36  per  cent.; 
implements  and  machinery  from  $1 8,586,225  to  $36,861,418, 
or  98  per  cent.;  land  and  buildings  from  $69,636,420  to 
$273,501,665,  or  293  per  cent.  In  ten  years  the  total 
194 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

value  of  farm  property  owned  by  Negroes  increased  from 
#177,404,688  to  $492,892,218,  or  177  per  cent. 

It  is  significant  of  the  standing  and  catholicity  of  this 
convention  that  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  Hon. 
David  F.  Walsh,  and  Dr.  John  E.  White,  a  leading  white 
Southern  clergyman,  both  spoke  at  the  opening  meeting 
at  Symphony  Hall. 

The  National  League  is  made  up  of  more  than  600  local 
leagues  which  influence  in  a  direct  and  practical  way  al- 
most every  community  in  the  United  States  with  any  con- 
siderable number  of  Negro  inhabitants.  These  local 
leagues  are  all  chartered,  guided,  and  supervised  by  the 
national  organization  and  with  them  all  the  Secretary,  Mr. 
Scott,  keeps  in  touch.  From  time  to  time  he  issues 
pamphlets  setting  forth  methods  of  organization,  activities 
that  can  be  undertaken,  and  subjects  that  may  be  discussed 
under  the  head  of  "Some  things  that  it  is  possible  for  a 
local  league  to  do  to  be  of  service  to  the  town  or  city  in 
which  it  is  located"  are  the  following: 

"(1)  To  keep  a  list  of  the  young  men  and  women  who 
are  intelligent,  trained,  and  qualified  to  fill  responsible 
places  as  clerks,  accountants,  salesmen,  janitors,  porters, 
etc.;  in  this  way  a  league  can  do  much  in  getting  suitable 
occupations  for  as  many  as  are  competent,  especially  so  in 
Northern  States. 

"(2)  In  protecting  the  community  against  fraudulent 
schemes,  as  false  stock  companies,  that  are  gotten  up 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  defrauding  colored  people. 

(3)  In  fostering  an  interest  in  civic  affairs,  such  as 

195 


K , 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

sanitation,  clean  yards,  cultivating  pride  in  making  at- 
tractive in  appearance  the  home  districts  of  our  people, 
and  in  other  ways  showing  an  interest  in  everything  that 
may  make  up  a  better  community  life." 

In  the  same  pamphlet  under  the  head  of  "Suggested 
Subjects  for  Discussion"  comes  the  following  list: 

1.  How  to  unify  the  colored  people  in  the  business  in- 
terests of  the  community. 

2.  What  the  professional  men,  ministers,  teachers, 
doctors,  lawyers,  etc.,  can  do  to  assist  the  business  men 
and  women. 

3.  What  the  business  men  can  do  to  assist  the  profes- 
sional men. 

4.  Patronizing  Negro  business  enterprises. 

5.  What  new  business  can  be  established  in  the  com- 
munity. 

6.  How  can  the  business  enterprises  already  established 
be  improved? 

7.  How  to  secure  additional  country  trade. 

8.  If  a  bank  does  not  exist,  can  one  be  established  and 
supported  ? 

9.  If  a  millinery  establishment  does  not  exist,  can  one 
be  established  and  supported,  etc.  ? 

10.  If  a  shoe  store  or  gents'  furnishing  store  does  not 
exist,  can  one  be  established  and  supported? 

11.  If  a  drug-store  does  not  exist,  can  one  be  estab- 
lished and  supported? 

In  another  such  pamphlet  monthly  meetings  between 
the  grocers  and  the  clubwomen  are  suggested.  Such  meet- 
196 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

ings  would  have  as  their  object  the  fixing  of  uniform  and 
mutually  satisfactory  prices  and  service.  It  is  also  recom- 
mended that  Negro  insurance  agents  constitute  them- 
selves unofficial  health  inspectors  for  their  sections  of  the 
town.  In  this  capacity  they  would  report  to  the  public 
health  committee  of  the  local  league  all  instances  of 
badly  ventilated  homes  or  schools,  mosquito-breeding 
spots,  accumulations  of  rubbish  and  filth,  or  any  other 
conditions  menacing  the  health  of  the  colored  citizens. 
The  suggestion  is  made  that  where  possible  reading-rooms 
and  bureaus  of  information  be  opened  in  connection  with 
the  offices  of  Negro  newspapers  and  that  such  rooms 
place  the  colored  papers  from  all  sections  of  the  country 
at  the  disposal  of  the  patrons  after  the  editor  has  finished 
with  them.  That  several  small  shopkeepers  club  together 
and  employ  one  expert  bookkeeper  is  another  idea  offered. 
It  is  also  proposed  that  small  retailers  get  together  for  the 
purpose  of  purchasing  jointly  such  commodities  as  can  be 
advantageously  secured  in  this  manner.  It  is  finally 
urged  that  a  committee  be  appointed  each  year  to  make  a 
social  survey  of  the  Negro  population.  This  study  would 
show  what  progress  had  been  made  during  the  year  in 
all  lines  of  endeavor  and  at  the  same  time  furnish  a  direc- 
tory of  all  the  business  and  social  activities  of  the  Negroes 
of  the  community.  It  is  pointed  out  that  the  sale  of 
advertising  space  in  its  pages  would  alone  more  than  pay 
for  such  a  directory. 

It  will  be  noted  that  these  business  leagues,  like  all 
other  organizations  founded  or  moulded  by  Booker  Wash- 

197 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

ington,  do  not  stick  to  their  lasts  in  any  narrow  sense. 
Mr.  Washington  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  fun- 
damental concern  of  all  human  beings  was  living,  and  that 
farming,  business,  education,  recreation,  or  what  not,  were 
only  important  in  so  far  as  they  made  the  whole  of  life 
better  worth  living.  The  means  employed  never  obscured 
his  vision  of  the  aim  sought  as  is  so  frequently  and  un- 
happily the  case  with  lesser  men. 

Just  as  at  the  agricultural  conferences,  so  at  these 
business  gatherings,  Booker  Washington  used  the  methods 
employed  by  the  revivalist  at  the  experience  meeting. 
By  so  doing  he  accomplished  the  double  purpose  of  en- 
couraging the  successful  by  the  tribute  of  public  recogni- 
tion and  spurring  on  the  less  successful  and  the  unsuc- 
cessful to  go  and  do  likewise.  Also  by  means  of  men  and 
women  telling  their  fellows  in  open  meeting  how  they 
achieved  their  success  the  race  is,  as  it  were,  revealed  to 
itself.  It  was,  for  instance,  through  a  meeting  of  the 
National  Negro  Business  League  that  it  came  to  light 
that  the  man  who  raises  the  most  potatoes  in  the  United 
States,  and  who  is  commonly  known  as  the  Potato  King 
of  the  West,  is  a  Negro — J.  G.  Groves  of  Edwardsville, 
Kan.  Groves'  story  at  one  of  the  annual  meetings  at- 
tracted so  much  attention  that  an  account  of  his  life 
later  appeared  in  an  illustrated  special  article  in  the 
American  Magazine.  It  was  also  discovered  through  a 
league  meeting  that  Scott  Bond,  another  colored  man, 
was  probably  the  most  successful  farmer  in  the  State  of 
Arkansas.  After  he  had  told  his  story  at  the  meeting 
198 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

of  the  National  League  held  in  New  York  in  1910  he  was 
pursued  by  cameramen  and  interviewers  for  days  and 
weeks  and  his  story  was  spread  all  over  the  United  States. 
At  the  Chicago  meeting  of  191 2  Watt  Terry,  a  modest 
and  even  shrinking  colored  man  of  Brockton,  Mass., 
unfolded  a  remarkable  story  of  success  in  spite  of  the 
hardest  and  must  untoward  circumstances.  So  unbe- 
lievable seemed  this  man's  story  that  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee took  up  with  him  personally  the  facts  of  his  re- 
cital, and  later  the  Secretary  of  the  League,  in  response 
to  a  demand,  had  to  vouch  for  his  statements  in  open 
meeting.  To  clinch  the  matter  still  further  Mr.  Wash- 
ington wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  in  Brockton,  who  replied  that  Terry's 
story  had,  if  anything,  been  understated  rather  than 
overstated.  Booker  Washington  himself  told  Watt  Terry's 
story  in  the  pages  of  the  Independent  for  March  27,  1913. 
Here  it  is:  "  .  .  .  Mr.  Terry  is  a  modest-appearing 
young  man  about  thirty  years  of  age.  When  he  landed 
at  Brockton  some  twelve  years  ago  he  had,  according  to 
his  own  story,  a  capital  of  just  twelve  cents.  He  found 
work  at  first  as  a  coachman.  After  a  time  he  obtained 
what  he  thought  was  a  better  position  as  janitor  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Building.  Some  of 
the  members  of  the  association  succeeded  in  getting  him  a 
position  as  a  railway  porter. 

"'Somehow  or  other,'  said  Terry,  'I  did  not  care  for 
that  sort  of  work,  and  after  a  few  months  gave  it  up.  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  rather  work  at  a  trade,  and 

199 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

tried  to  get  work  in  one  of  the  shoe  factories  in  Brockton. 
As  I  did  not  know  the  trade  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
competition  for  the  places  open  to  apprentices  it  looked 
rather  hopeless  at  first.  Finally,  I  got  the  foreman  to 
say  he  would  give  me  a  chance,  provided  I  was  willing 
to  work  for  two  weeks  without  pay.  I  accepted  that  offer 
and  made  up  my  mind  to  make  the  most  of  those  two 
weeks.' 

"At  the  end  of  the  two  weeks  Terry  had  done  so  well 
that  he  was  given  a  position  in  which  he  earned  #7  a  week. 
By  sticking  close  to  his  job  and  making  the  most  of  his 
opportunities  he  was  gradually  promoted  until  he  earned 
first  #10,  then  $15,  #18,  and  finally  #25  a  week. 

"'I  had  some  difficulties  at  first,'  said  Terry.  'The 
other  men  did  not  like  me  at  first  and  showed  it.  How- 
ever, I  stuck  to  the  job,  kept  on  smiling,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  I  was  on  just  as  good  terms  with  the  men 
in  the  shop  as  I  cared  to  be.  As  I  did  not  have  much 
opportunity  to  spend  my  money,  I  found  it  easier  to  save.' 

"When  Terry  reached  the  point  where  he  was  earning 
$25  a  week  his  wife  was  earning  #9  as  matron  in  the 
Brockton  railway  station,  and  they  both  saved  their 
money.  Meanwhile  Terry  had  begun  to  buy  and  sell 
real  estate  in  a  small  way.  One  day  he  sold  a  house  and 
lot  upon  which  he  cleared  as  commission  $100. 

"'That  seemed  to  settle  the  question  of  my  future/ 
said  Mr.  Terry.  'I  decided  to  go  into  the  real  estate 
business.' 

"He  added  that  at  the  present  time  his  gross  income 
200 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

from  his  houses  was  between  #6,000  and  #7,000  per  month. 
Altogether,  including  several  store  buildings  and  two 
apartment  houses  containing  fifty-four  suites  of  rooms, 
Mr.  Terry  owns  222  buildings  in  Brockton.  One  of 
these  buildings  is  leased  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment for  the  use  of  the  post-office;  another  is  rented  for  a 
public  library  and  reading-room  by  the  city. 

"I  should  not,  perhaps,  have  dared  to  make  this  state- 
ment if  I  had  not  confirmed  the  truth  of  Mr.  Terry's 
statement  by  independent  inquiry.  In  a  recent  letter 
from  Secretary  White,  of  the  Brockton  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  he  says:  'Some  weeks  ago  I  wrote 
you  relative  to  our  mutual  friend  (Watt  Terry's)  busi- 
ness, but  now  I  want  to  enclose  a  clipping  from  the  tax 
list  which  you  will  see  is  positive  evidence  that  the  time 
the  taxes  were  recorded  he  was  carrying  well  on  to  $300,000 
and  I  know  that  his  purchase  of  #120,000  occurred  since 
that  time.  It  is  certainly  a  most  wonderful  development 
within  a  few  years.' 

"I  ought  to  add  that  during  all  the  time  that  Mr. 
Terry  has  been  in  Brockton  he  has  been  connected  with 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  not  long  ago 
he  contributed  #1,000  toward  the  support  of  that  insti- 
tution. 

"Many  persons  will,  perhaps,  feel  that  money  which  is 
acquired  in  this  rapid  way  is  likely  to  do  the  person  who 
obtains  it  as  much  harm  as  it  does  good.  I  confess  that 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  same  amount  of  money  acquired 
more  slowly  would  mean  more  to  the  man  who  gained  it. 

201 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  Negro  race  has  not  reached 
the  point  where  it  has  been  troubled  by  the  number  of 
its  millionaires.  And  if  getting  slowly  and  laboriously 
is  a  good  discipline,  the  Negro  has  almost  a  surplus  of  that 
kind  of  blessing.  I  ought  to  add,  also,  in  justice  to  Mr. 
Terry,  that  from  all  I  can  learn,  his  rapid  rise  has  neither 
injured  his  character  nor  destroyed  his  good  sense.  I 
suspect  that  the  effort  to  keep  all  those  houses  rented  and 
the  effort  to  pay  interest  on  his  mortgages  has  had  a 
tendency  to  make  him  humble." 

Although  Watt  Terry's  success  is,  of  course,  phenomenal 
he  is  only  one  of  the  many  notably  successful  Negro  busi- 
ness men  who  have  told  their  stories  at  meetings  of 
the  National  Negro  Business  League.  Neither  is  Mr. 
Terry  the  only  Negro  who  has  made  a  big  success  in  real 
estate.  At  the  meeting  of  the  league  already  described, 
held  in  Boston  in  191 5,  Mr.  Washington  introduced  Philip 
A.  Payton,  Jr.,  of  New  York  City;  E.  C.  Brown,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, Pa.;  and  Watt  Terry,  of  Brockton,  Mass.;  as 
the  three  largest  real  estate  operators  of  the  Negro  race. 
Philip  A.  Payton,  Jr.,  was  the  pioneer  in  opening  the 
Harlem  district  in  New  York  City  to  settlement  by 
Negroes,  who  had  formerly  been  excluded  from  all  decent 
portions  of  the  city  and  obliged  to  live  on  San  Juan  Hill 
and  in  other  sections  of  unsavory  reputation.  E.  C.  Brown 
made  money  in  real  estate  in  Newport  News  and  Norfolk, 
Va.,  and  headed  movements  for  the  establishment  of 
Negro  banks  in  both  of  these  cities.  Afterward  he  moved 
to  Philadelphia,  where  he  has  opened  a  bank,  and  also 
202 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

conducts  a  real  estate  business  on  Broad  Street — the 
only  Negro,  it  is  said,  who  conducts  a  large  business  enter- 
prise on  this  important  thoroughfare.  At  the  same  meet- 
ing it  was  brought  out  that  a  Negro  by  the  name  of 
Phillip  J.  Allston  was  chemist  for  the  Potter  Chemical 
Company,  having  risen  from  bottle-washer  to  that  re- 
sponsible post.  The  story  of  J.  S.  Trower,  caterer,  of 
Philadelphia,  showed  that  he  was  frequently  engaged  for 
the  most  important  functions  in  the  city  and  had  been 
regularly  employed  by  the  Cramps  Company,  shipbuilders, 
to  take  charge  of  the  catering  in  connection  with  the 
ceremonies  accompanying  the  launching  of  new  ships  for 
the  Navy.  Mrs.  Bell  Davis  of  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  has 
become  equally  successful  as  a  caterer.  When  the  Na- 
tional Negro  Business  League  met  in  Indianapolis  it  was 
she  who  served  the  annual  banquet.  Booker  Washington 
took  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  disclosing  her  achieve- 
ments to  the  Negro  people  who  had  previously  known 
little  or  nothing  about  her.  He  thus  introduced  her 
at  a  meeting  of  the  League,  "Mrs.  Bell  Davis,  a  widow, 
the  celebrated  caterer  of  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  who  has 
served  banquets  and  receptions  in  honor  of  Presidents 
and  Vice-Presidents  of  the  United  States,  who  owns  a 
stock  of  Haviland  china,  linen,  and  silverware  valued  at 
thousands  of  dollars,  all  unencumbered,  furnishes  another 
illustration  of  what  heights  can  be  attained  in  the  com- 
mercial world  by  strenuous  effort  and  making  use  of 
every  little  opportunity  which  presents  itself.  Mrs. 
Davis'   humble   beginnings,  hardships  encountered,   and 

203 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

success  achieved  would  make  three  chapters  of  a  most 
interesting  biography." 

Among  the  men  spoken  of  by  Booker  Washington  at 
the  Philadelphia  meeting  of  the  Business  League  was 
Heman  E.  Perry,  the  founder  of  the  first  and  only  old 
line  legal  reserve  life  insurance  company  operated  by  and 
for  Negroes.  In  his  efforts  to  raise  the  #100,000  initial 
capital  required  by  the  law  of  his  State — Georgia — Mr. 
Perry  had  tramped  all  over  the  United  States  at  least 
three  times.  Finally,  having  tried  every  conceivable 
source  without  securing  the  required  amount,  he  returned 
to  all  the  subscribers  of  capital  stock  the  money  they 
had  paid  in  plus  4  per  cent,  interest.  This  action  so 
inspired  the  confidence  of  the  subscribers  that  almost 
without  exception  they  not  only  returned  the  money,  but 
subscribed  for  additional  stock  with  the  result  that  the 
initial  capital  stock  was  oversubscribed.  When  examined 
by  the  State  Insurance  Department  three  years  after  it 
opened  business  this  company  was  found  to  have  a  gross 
income  of  almost  #77,000  and  admitted  assets  of  almost 
$160,000.  Each  subsequent  examination  by  the  State 
Department  has  showed  a  healthy  growth,  low  mortality, 
good  judgment  in  the  selection  of  risks,  prompt  payment  of 
claims,  careful  management,  and  a  sound  financial  condition. 
By  means  of  this  company,  known  as  the  Standard  Life 
Insurance  Company,  life  insurance  may  be  had  by  any 
Negro  under  the  same  conditions,  with  the  same  degree  of 
security,  and  at  the  same  rates  as  a  white  man. 

Among  the  other  notably  successful  Negro  business 
204 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

men  who  have  told  their  stones  at  meetings  of  the  league 
are  the  following:  Victor  H.  Tulane,  of  Montgomery, 
Ala.,  whose  story  of  small  beginnings  and  present  success 
stirred  his  fellows  at  a  meeting  of  the  league.  Mr.  Tulane 
entered  the  grocery  business  twenty-five  years  ago,  a 
business  that  any  ambitious  man  of  his  race  may  enter, 
requiring  small  capital  but  unlimited  patience  and  close 
attention  to  business.  He  now  owns  considerable  prop- 
erty, and  is  a  factor  in  all  matters  that  concern  his  race 
in  Montgomery,  being  regarded  by  white  and  colored 
citizens  alike  as  Montgomery's  first  colored  citizen.  Mr. 
Tulane  says :  "Twenty-five  years  ago  I  was  a  renter;  to-day 
I  am  landlord  of  not  a  few  tenants.  Twenty-five  years 
ago  my  stock  represented  less  than  a  hundred  dollars;  at 
the  present  time  it  values  several  thousands.  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  I  had  but  one  helper — a  small  boy;  to-day 
I  employ  on  an  average  of  seven  assistants  the  year  round, 
excluding  my  wife  and  self.  Twenty-five  years  ago  I 
bought  lard  in  five-pound  quantities;  to-day  I  purchase 
by  the  barrel.  Twenty-five  years  ago  I  bought  salt  in 
ten-cent  quantities;  at  present  I  buy  it  in  ton  lots. 
Twenty-three  years  ago  I  was  unable  to  secure  credit  to 
the  amount  of  three  dollars,  but  since  that  period  the  very 
house  that  then  refused  me  has  credited  me  at  one  time 
with  several  hundred  times  this  amount,  and  to-day  it  is 
not,  how  much  do  you  owe  ? — but,  how  much  do  you  want  ? 
Twenty  years  ago  my  business  barely  required  the  service 
of  one  horse  and  wagon;  at  present  it  demands  the  use  of 
several.     Twenty  years  ago  I  did  an  annual  business  of 

205 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

something  less  than  a  thousand  dollars;  during  several 
years  since  that  time  the  value  of  my  business  has  ex- 
ceeded $40,000  per  year."  It  is  Mr.  Tulane's  boast  that 
he  has  not  been  denied  credit  during  his  business  career 
except  the  one  time  mentioned  above,  and  that  he  has  never 
been  threatened  or  sued  in  connection  with  the  collection 
of  a  debt. 

Another  man's  story  that  came  out  at  the  meeting  of 
the  National  Negro  Business  League  is  the  story  of  Charles 
H.  Anderson,  a  wholesale  and  retail  fish  and  oyster  dealer. 
He  conducts  a  fish,  oyster,  and  game  business  in  Jackson- 
ville,  Fla.,  which  supplies  the  largest  hotels  and  many 
of  Jacksonville's  richest  white  families.     He  is  also  inter- 
ested in  a  fish  and  oyster  packing  business  on  the  Florida 
coast,  and  is  the  cashier  of  the  colored  bank  at  Jackson- 
ville.    A  speaker  at  the  league  meeting  held  in  the  John 
Wanamaker  store,  Philadelphia,  in  August,  1913,  referred 
to  Mr.  Anderson  as  follows:  "The  first  time  I  saw  this 
gentleman  was  fourteen  years  ago,  when  he  was  standing 
up  behind  a  white  sheet  that  had  a  round  hole  cut  in  it, 
bravely  negotiating  his  head  and  face  as  a  target;  he  was 
working  for  a  man  who  was  running  one  of  those  games 
known  as :  '  Every-time-you-hit-the-nigger's-head-you-get- 
a-fine-cigar ! '  (Uproarious  laughter.)     There  I  found  him 
fourteen  years  ago,  posing  as  a  target,  and  for  the  magnifi- 
cent sum  of  five  cents  anybody  could  have  secured  the 
privilege  of  throwing  three  balls  at  his  face.     (Prolonged 
laughter  and  applause  as  Mr.  Anderson  stepped  forward 
and    was    introduced    to    Hon.    John    Wanamaker,    who 
206 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

warmly  shook  his  hand.)  To-day  this  young  man  is  one 
of  the  most  competent  and  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
business  men  of  our  race,  regardless  of  section,  North, 
South,  East,  or  West.  (Hearty  applause.)  Recently  he 
was  offered  #18,000  for  one  piece  of  property  which  he 
owns  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  if  he  would  sell  out  to 
me  to-day  all  of  his  real  estate  and  other  holdings  and 
equities,  I  would  be  willing  to  give  him  my  check  for 
$75,000." 

Others  are:  Edward  C.  Berry  of  Athens,  Ohio,  who  owns 
and  operates  a  family  hotel  in  which  he  does  a  business  of 
$25,000  to  $35,000  a  year;  J.  Walter  Hodge  of  Indian- 
apolis, Ind.,  who,  inspired  by  the  recitals  at  the  Business 
League  meetings,  gave  up  his  job  as  a  Pullman  car  porter, 
after  he  had  saved  some  money,  and  is  now  the  owner  of  a 
large  real  estate  business;  Thomas  H.  Hayes  who,  starting 
as  a  day  laborer  for  the  Southern  Railway,  now  controls 
probably  the  largest  undertaking  establishment  in  Mem- 
phis, Tenn. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  story  of  business  success 
ever  told  before  a  meeting  of  the  league  was  that  of  J. 
H.  Blodgett  of  Jacksonville,  Fla.  Mr.  Blodgett  told  his 
story  at  the  sessions  of  the  league  held  in  Philadelphia 
in  1913  at  the  Academy  of  Music.  By  request  he  in  part 
repeated  it  at  the  meeting  held  in  the  Wanamaker  Store 
the  following  day.  Mr.  Blodgett  is  an  ex-slave.  He  has 
had  no  education  whatever  except  what  he  has  picked  up 
in  his  long  and  successful  struggle  with  life's  sternest  reali- 
ties.    We  will  give  his  story  in  his  own  language.     Bear 

207 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

in  mind  that  this  is  the  language,  as  taken  down  verbatim 
by  a  stenographer  at  the  time,  of  a  totally  unschooled 
ex-slave.  He  said:  "Now  I  want  to  say  I  went  to  Jack- 
sonville nineteen  years  ago  with  the  magnificent  sum  of  a 
dollar  and  ten  cents  in  my  pocket.  (Laughter.)  I  also 
had  an  extra  suit  of  underclothing  in  a  paper  bag;  that 
was  all  the  baggage  I  had  as  a  boarder.  (Laughter.)  I 
was  also  arrested  as  a  tramp  for  having  on  a  straw  hat  in 
the  winter  time.  (Hearty  laughter.)  And  I  say  all  this 
especially  to  you  young  men  who  are  present  here  to-night, 
for  so  many  of  our  young  men  seem  to  think  that  they 
can't  start  or  succeed  in  business  unless  somebody  shoves 
them  oflfthe  bank  into  the  water  of  opportunity  and  makes 
them  swim  for  themselves;  I  simply  want  to  say  this  to 
you  young  men,  I  started  with  #1.10  and  one  extra  suit 
of  underclothing  in  a  paper  bag — (laughter) — and  to-day 
I  pay  more  taxes  than  any  Negro  in  Florida.  (Prolonged 
applause.)  I  have  had  all  sorts  of  struggles  and  difficulties 
to  contend  with,  but  you  can't  get  away  from  it — if 
you  get  anything  in  this  United  States  of  America  now, 
you  have  got  to  work  for  it.  (Hearty  applause.)  The 
white  people  all  over  this  country  have  'weaned  the 
Negro.'  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Dr.  Washington  has 
been  going  all  over  this  country  boasting  about  what  you 
could  do  and  what  our  race  has  done,  and  the  white  man 
is  just  quietly  and  gently  and  in  every  way  telling  us: 
'Go  thou  and  do  what  Dr.  Washington  said  you  could 
do.'     (Prolonged  laughter  and  applause.) 

"When  I  began,  I  commenced  working  for  a  railroad 
208 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

company;  I  had  a  splendid  job — washing  cars  for  a  dollar 
and  five  cents  a  day;  I  got  #8.40  from  the  railroad  every 
eight  days.  After  working  for  a  month  and  a  half  I 
saved  enough  money  to  send  back  and  bring  my  wife 
from  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  to  Jacksonville.  Both 
of  us  went  to  work;  we  opened  a  little  boarding-house; 
she  ran  that,  and  when  my  #1.05  a  day  enabled  me  to  save 
as  much  as  one  hundred  dollars,  I  quit  that  job  and  began 
to  hustle  for  myself.  I  told  the  white  man  I  was  working 
under:  'You  don't  know  that  a  Negro  with  #100  in  cash 
is  a  rare  thing  among  my  people.  I'm  going  to  strike  out 
and  see  what  I  can  do  by  myself.'  I  made  up  my  mind 
that  if  all  of  the  big  Negroes  that  I  had  heard  of,  read 
about,  and  talked  with,  if  they  could  get  honor  and  recog- 
nition by  having  brains,  money,  and  ability,  there  was 
nothing  the  matter  with  me  and  my  poor  little  wife  to 
prevent  us  from  getting  up,  too;  so  I  went  to  work  and  de- 
termined to  work  day  and  night,  if  need  be,  to  get  some 
money,  and  other  things  necessary  to  succeed  in  life.  I 
wanted  money  because  I  had  seen  and  suffered  so  many 
humiliations  put  on  the  man  who  does  not  have  money. 
(Applause.) 

"The  first  time  I  saw  this  distinguished  gentleman 
(pointing  to  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington)  I  was  laying 
brick  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  at  #1.25  a  day,  and  he  drove 
by  in  company  with  Mr.  James  W.  Johnson,  Mr.  J.  Rosa- 
mond Johnson,  and  another  gentleman.  I  had  always 
loved  the  big  men  of  my  race;  even  as  a  little  boy  I  de- 
lighted to  hear  of  what  they  had  achieved,  and  when  I 

209 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

heard  that  the  great  Booker  T.  Washington  was  in 
town,  I  quit  my  job  for  that  day,  went  to  the  place  where 
he  spoke,  walked  up  close,  and  was  hoping  somebody  would 
do  me  the  honor  of  introducing  me.  But  I  found  the 
gentlemen  who  had  him  in  charge  were  introducing  him 
to  nobody  but  the  big  Negroes,  and  the  big  Negroes  were 
shaking  hands  with  him  and  completely  monopolizing 
Booker  T.  Washington.  (Prolonged  laughter.)  I  did  not 
like  to  be  rude  and  therefore  did  not  push  through  the 
crowd  and  shake  hands  with  him  anyway,  as  I  felt  like 
doing.  I  was  nothing  but  a  poor  brick-layer,  nobody 
would  introduce  me,  but  I  heard  his  grand  speech,  was 
richly  benefited  and  inspired  by  all  he  said,  and  when  I 
went  away  I  made  a  solemn  vow  to  myself.  I  said:  'If 
God  be  with  me,  I  mean  to  so  work  and  conduct  myself 
so  that  some  day  I  shall  deserve  to  shake  hands  with 
Booker  T.  Washington.'  (Hearty  applause.)  Now  let 
me  tell  you  the  sequel  of  the  story.  Away  down  in  Flor- 
ida, in  my  humble  home  in  Jacksonville,  there  is  a  room 
named  'Booker  T.  Washington.'  (Applause.)  I  have 
set  apart  and  dedicated  a  portion  of  my  home  in  honor  of 
this  distinguished  gentleman  and  leader  of  our  race. 
(Applause.)  He  is  the  first  human  being  on  earth  I  have 
ever  permitted  to  sleep  in  it,  and  his  good  wife  is  the  first 
woman  and  second  person  I  have  ever  permitted  to  sleep 
in  that  room.  (Prolonged  laughter  and  applause.)  We 
love  him  in  the  South,  both  Negro  and  white  man! 
(Hearty  applause.)  Booker  T.  Washington's  name  is  a 
monument  of  strength  because  he  is  teaching  the  Negro 
210 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

to  use  his  hands  and  head  in  order  to  be  useful  in  the  com- 
munity and  to  achieve  success.     (Applause.) 

"I  have  been  sick  this  summer  and  just  got  back  from 
Saratoga — (prolonged  applause) — of  course  all  men  who 
get  rich  go  to  Saratoga.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  While 
there  I  met  some  folks,  and  in  the  course  of  my  remarks 
I  had  occasion  to  remind  them  that  Dr.  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington, while  an  earnest  advocate  of  industrial  training,  is 
not  an  enemy  or  opposed  to  higher  education.  There 
was  a  man  from  the  British  West  Indies  who  began  to 
speak  on  the  subject  of  the  Negro;  he  began  to  orate  around, 
began  to  tell  how  the  Negro  must  expect  to  rise  in  the 
world;  oh!  he  made  a  magnificent  speech  going  to  show 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  world  like  higher  education 
for  the  Negro;  he  even  said  that  the  Negro  race  would 
never  amount  to  anything  and  get  its  rights  until  every 
one  of  us  had  secured  a  college  education.  (Laughter.) 
Why,  you  ought  to  have  been  there  and  heard  him  orate; 
he  took  us  all  through  Greek,  Roman,  ancient,  and  medi- 
eval history;  across  the  Alps  and  all  around  the  Egyptian 
pyramids — (hearty  laughter) — and  even  cited  the  Druids 
of  old  to  testify  to  the  grandeur  and  necessity  of  higher 
education  for  the  Negro.  After  he  got  through  orating  I 
said  to  him:  'Brother,  I  was  down  to  a  meeting  of  Negroes 
in  the  State  of  Florida — at  the  State  Business  League, 
and  I  saw  sitting  on  one  bench  eleven  (n)  Negro  men 
whose  combined  wealth  would  amount  to  more  than  one 
million  dollars,  and  not  one  of  them  ever  saw  the  inside  of 
a  college.'     (Prolonged  applause,  mingled  with  laughter.) 

211 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

And  I  said  to  him  further  than  that:  'If  any  of  you  gen- 
tlemen who  claim  to  be  educated  in  the  British  West 
Indies,  and  all  you  gentlemen  who  hail  from  Beloit  Col- 
lege (wherever  it  is) — if  you  can  fool  any  one  of  those 
eleven  Negroes  out  of  one  dime,  I  will  give  you  ten  dollars!' 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  Yes,  sir,  without  much  edu- 
cation these  men  own  their  own  homes  and  dozens  of 
homes  in  which  other  people  live;  they  are  self-sustaining 
and  independent,  and  can  write  their  names  to  checks 
away  up  in  the  thousands  of  dollars;  they  live  in  neat, 
comfortable,  well-appointed  homes  and  enjoy  the  respect 
and  esteem  of  their  neighbors — black  as  well  as  white. 
'Now,  sir,'  I  turned  to  him  and  asked  him,  'will  you  kindly 
tell  me  what  is  your  occupation  in  life  and  what  you  have 
been  able  to  accomplish  with  all  this  higher  education 
you  have  been  talking  about?'  I  found  out  that  he  was  a 
waiter  in  the  United  States  Hotel.  (Laughter.)  I  said 
to  him  further:  'My  brother,  I  don't  claim  to  be  an  edu- 
cated man,  but  live  in  a  villa  of  my  own;  I  own  consider- 
able real  estate,  and  my  dear  little  wife  rides  around  in 
our  own  $5,500  Packard  automobile,  all  paid  for.'  (Pro- 
longed applause  and  laughter.) 

"I  am  somewhat  of  a  carpenter  and  builder;  I  went 
to  work,  bought  some  ground  while  it  was  cheap  and  at  a 
time  when  everything  in  Jacksonville  was  at  low  tide; 
there  were  plenty  of  sick  Yankees  whose  investments 
had  depreciated  and  I  invested  what  money  I  had  in 
some  land.  I  would  build  a  house,  then  sell  it;  buy  more 
land,  build  another  house  and  sell  that;  after  a  while  I 
212 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

was  able  to  build  three  houses  and  sell  two,  build  two  and 
sell  one  and  so  on — (applause) — until  pretty  soon  I  found 
myself  in  the  real  estate  business,  buying  land  and  build- 
ing and  selling  houses.  In  this  way  I  have  gone  on  build- 
ing my  own  houses  until  now  I  have  plenty  to  support 
myself  and  that  dear  little  red-headed  woman  who  has  a 
seat  somewhere  in  this  beautiful  audience.  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  She  doesn't  have  to  keep  a  boarding- 
house  any  more;  she  is  on  the  retired  list.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  We  have  made  enough  to  keep  from  doing 
that." 

At  this  point  Dr.  Washington  asked,  "How  many 
houses  do  you  own  ? " 

Mr.  Blodgett  replied:  "I  have  been  selling  houses 
pretty  rapidly  during  the  last  few  years,  but  I  have  built 
— and  right  here  I  want  to  say  that  while  my  subject  is 
'Building  and  Contracting'  I  have  never  built  a  house  for 
anybody  but  myself.  I  build  my  own  property.  I  have 
built  since  the  fire  we  had  in  Jacksonville  in  1902  two 
hundred  and  eight  houses  of  my  own.  (Prolonged  ap- 
plause.) I  have  sold  a  good  many  of  them.  When  I 
realized  that  I  was  beginning  to  get  old  and  not  in  such 
good  physical  condition  as  I  used  to  be,  I  was  afraid  I 
might  get  afflicted  with  tuberculosis,  or  appendicitis, 
or  some  of  these  other  high-sounding  diseases  the  doctors 
now  talk  about — (laughter) — and  so  I  thought  it  best  to 
convert  some  of  my  estate  into  another  form  that  could 
be  more  easily  handled  by  my  better  half  when  I  had  gone 
to  inhabit  my  mansion  in  the  skies.     (Laughter.)     So  I 

213 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

have  begun  to  sell  off  some  of  my  property  and  get  out  of 
debt.  I  now  have  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  houses, 
the  rents  from  which  amount  to  a  little  over  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  a  month.  (Prolonged  applause.)  I 
have  invested  my  money  in  recent  years  in  what  I  call 
'grip-sack'  securities,  so  that  if  there  should  be  any  little 
unpleasantness  among  the  races,  I  can  go  to  my  safe 
and  grab  that  grip-sack.  (Prolonged  laughter  and  ap- 
plause.) You  see  if  there  should  ever  be  any  friction  or 
trouble,  I  can  grab  my  grip-sack,  jump  into  a  powerful 
machine,  and  come  up  here  around  Philadelphia,  'The 
City  of  Brotherly  Love'  or  over  here  in  Canada,  and 
I  can  sit  down  at  my  leisure  and  read  in  the  papers  what 
they  are  doing  down  there.     (Prolonged  laughter.) 

"Dr.  Washington  has  been  in  my  home  in  Jackson- 
ville; I  have  now  had  the  honor  of  not  only  shaking  hands 
with  him,  but  of  having  him  as  my  special  guest.  I  know 
I  am  going  to  make  one  break  here  now,  I'm  going  to  say 
something  that  my  little  modest  wife  may  not  like  me  to 
say,  but  I  hope  she  will  excuse  just  this  one  time — (laugh- 
ter)— for  everybody  knows  that  I  ain't  very  bright  any- 
how— not  really  responsible.  (Prolonged  laughter.)  I 
want  to  say  this,  not  in  a  boasting  way — I  live  in  the  best 
home  of  any  Negro  in  this  country  I  have  so  far  seen. 
(Hearty  applause.)  I  live  in  a  home — we  call  it  'Blodgett 
Villa';  we  have  flowers  and  lawns  and  vines  and  shrubbery, 
a  nice  greenhouse  and  all  those  things  that  go  to  make  up 
for  higher  civilization.  I  surrounded  myself  with  all 
these  things  to  show  that  the  Negro  has  the  same  taste, 
214 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

the  same  yearning  for  higher  civilization  that  the  white 
man  has  whenever  he  has  the  money  to  afford  it.  (Ap- 
plause.) You  know  they  have  been  saying  all  these  years 
that  the  Negro  is  coarse  and  vicious,  that  he  is  kin  to  the 
monkey — (laughter) — and  that  we  do  not  appreciate  those 
things  that  make  for  higher  civilization  such  as  flowers, 
hothouses,  neatly  kept  houses  and  lawns,  automobiles, 
and  such  things,  so  I  went  and  got  them.  (Applause.) 
When  you  step  inside  of  Mrs.  Blodgett's  home  there  you 
will  find  art  and  music  and  literature,  and  if  you  can  find 
anything  in  there  that  does  not  tend  toward  the  higher 
civilization,  you  have  my  promise  and  consent  to  throw  it 
outdoors.     (Laughter  and  applause.)     .     .     . 

"I  remember  when  I  was  a  drayman  on  the  streets  of 
Jacksonville;  I  was  a  great  big  man,  even  heavier  than 
I  am  now:  I  wore  a  pair  of  magnificent  feet  appropriate  to 
my  size,  and  when  I  drove  along  everybody  whistled  and 
called  me  'Old  Big  One.'  Since  that  time  I  have  gradu- 
ated from  a  drayman  to  what  the  program  calls  me:  a 
*  Builder  and  Contractor,'  and  when  they  see  me  now 
riding  through  the  streets  of  Jacksonville  in  my  $5,500 
Packard  automobile,  if  one  of  those  Negroes  should  call 
me  'Old  Big  One,'  I  would  put  him  in  jail.  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  I  am  interested  in  business  with  white 
men,  and  I  tell  you  when  a  Negro  gets  to  the  point  where 
he  makes  cash  deposits  in  a  white  man's  bank — say  $5,000 
this  week,  $2,000  next  week,  and  so  on,  they  will  begin 
to  discover  you,  honor  and  respect  you.  If  you  deposit 
$2,000  this  week,  the  bank  president  will  know  about 

215 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

it,  and  when  it  gets  to  the  place  that  you  have  got  in  the 
bank  #25,000,  why  this  man  even  (pointing  to  an  ebony 
black  man  in  the  audience)  will  have  become  a  bright 
mulatto!" 

Perhaps  the  most  unique  and  impressive  session  of  the 
National  Negro  Business  League  was  that  held  at  the 
invitation  of  John  Wanamaker  in  his  great  department 
store  in  Philadelphia  in  1913.  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing talks  at  this  meeting  was  that  of  Charles  Banks  of 
Mound  Bayou,  Miss.  Mr.  Banks  has  been  referred 
to  in  an  earlier  chapter.  He  has  often  been  called  the 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan  of  his  race.  He  said  in  part:  "I 
live  in  the  little  town  of  Mound  Bayou,  Miss.,  that  was 
founded  by  Isaiah  T.  Montgomery,  an  ex-slave  of  Jeffer- 
son Davis,  the  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
Mr.  Montgomery,  the  ex-slave  in  question,  is  present  at 
this  meeting.  We  live  in  what  is  called  the  'Black  Belt 
of  Mississippi'  and  our  plantations  embrace  some  of  the 
richest  and  most  fertile  land  that  can  be  found  in  the 
entire  'Delta/  In  some  parts  of  the  'Delta'  the  Negro 
population  outnumbers  the  white  population  in  a  ratio  of 
five  to  one.  In  the  town  in  which  I  live  (Mound  Bayou) 
we  outnumber  the  white  population  in  a  ratio  of  five  to 
nothing.     (Laughter  and  applause.) 

"Instead  of  whining  and  lamenting  our  lot,  and  be- 
moaning the  racial  prejudice  which  exists  in  our  section  of 
the  country,  we  are  taking  advantage  of  some  of  the 
opposition  and  the  tendency  to  segregate  us  and  we  are 
trying  to  show,  through  the  leadership  of  this  ex-slave  of 
216 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

Jefferson  Davis,  that  it  is  possible  for  us  to  build  up  a 
Negro  community,  a  town  owned  and  controlled  by 
Negroes  right  there  under  his  direct  supervision.  And  as 
a  result,  on  the  Yazoo  and  Mound  Bayou  Branch  of  the 
Yazoo  Central  Railroad,  we  have  one  of  the  best-governed 
and  most  prosperous  towns  on  the  whole  line.  We  have 
something  like  thirty  to  forty  thousand  acres  of  land  in 
that  rich  and  fertile  country  owned  and  controlled  ex- 
clusively by  Negro  men  and  women.  We  have  there 
the  little  town  of  Mound  Bayou,  which  it  is  our  privilege 
to  represent,  and  so  far  as  its  management  or  government 
is  concerned,  we  have  control  of  everything.  There  we 
have  a  Negro  Depot  Agent,  a  Negro  Express  Agent,  a 
Negro  Postmaster,  a  Negro  Mayor,  a  Board  of  Negro 
Aldermen  and  City  Councilmen,  and  every  other  official 
of  the  city  administration  is  a  full-fledged  Negro.  In 
that  town  I  am  the  banker,  and  I  pass  for  a  Negro." 
(Laughter  and  applause  followed  this  sally,  as  the  speaker 
is  the  blackest  of  full-blooded  Africans.) 

In  concluding  his  address  of  welcome  on  this  occasion 
Mr.  Wanamaker  said:  "I  do  hope  that  meetings  like  this 
will  come  often  and  be  held  in  every  large  city  in  the  North. 
In  exhibiting  to  the  world  the  successful  business  men 
and  women  of  your  race,  your  league  is  doing  exactly 
what  every  good  merchant  legitimately  does,  that  is — 
you  are  showing  your  goods.  (Laughter.)  And  you  are 
delivering  the  goods.  (Prolonged  applause.)  Your  league 
is  making  an  'Annual  Report'  as  it  were;  it  is  making 
a  'Yearly  Inventory'  of  what  your  race  has  on  hand,  and 

217 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

though  this  large  hall  has  been  the  scene  of  many  delight- 
ful occasions  (mainly  connected  with  this  business)  your 
coming  here  to-day  is  the  first  meeting  of  its  kind. 
(Applause.)  I  believe  that  this  meeting  ought  to  be  put 
down  as  historical,  and  should  serve  as  a  set-off — in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  stoning  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
in  the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  scarcely  more  than  fifty 
years  ago.  (Prolonged  applause.)  This  meeting  will 
simply  help  to  balance  your  account.  (Applause.)  The 
world  is  moving  on,  and  it  is  a  glorious  thing  to-day  to 
find  that,  instead  of  stepping  backward — contrary  to  the 
predictions  of  some — you  are  making  such  splendid  strides 
forward  under  the  fine  leadership  of  Dr.  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington— (applause) — as  evidenced  in  this  Business  League 
Convention. 

"In  closing  I  want  not  only  to  pay  just  tribute  to  what 
you  have  achieved  in  music,  in  education,  and  religious 
life,  but  I  think  it  fitting,  on  this  occasion,  and  I  have 
planned  to  show  you  a  fine  painyng  from  the  brush  of  the 
greatest  artist  of  your  race — the  son  of  Bishop  Tanner. 
I  have  seen  his  handiwork  in  some  of  the  art  galleries  of 
the  first  rank  in  Europe.  For  the  most  part  his  paintings 
are  religious  in  conception,  and  the  peculiar  beauty  of 
them  is  that  they  deal  with  the  heart,  even  as  they  are  fine 
expressions  of  art.  (Applause.)  Before  you  leave  I  have 
planned  to  show  you  several  other  pictures  of  real  merit 
that  members  of  your  race  have  produced.     (Applause.) 

"And  oh — when  I  consider  all  these  things,  and  when 
I  gazed  upon  this  vast  and  beautiful  audience  a  few 
218 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

minutes  ago,  as  you  were  singing  so  fervently  our  national 
anthem,  'America,'  as  I  looked  over  the  sea  of  earnest, 
intelligent  faces,  I  wondered  how  on  earth  we  could  sing 
that  song  for  a  hundred  years  or  more — I  wondered  how  it 
was  possible  to  keep  a  race  like  yours  enslaved  while, 
for  years  and  years,  the  people  of  this  nation  sang  that 
last  line  of  that  song,  'Let  freedom  ring!!!"  (Prolonged 
applause,  tumultuous  cheering,  and  the  waving  of  countless 
handkerchiefs  as  Mr.  Wanamaker  resumed  his  seat.) 

Aside  from  having  the  successful  colored  men  and 
women  tell  one  another  and  their  less-successful  fellows 
how  they  had  achieved  their  success  at  these  sessions  of 
the  league,  Booker  Washington  also  arranged  to  have  one 
or  more  prominent  white  men  speak.  His  reason  for 
this,  aside  from  the  obvious  one  of  helping  to  foster 
friendly  feeling  between  the  races,  was,  it  may  safely  be 
hazarded,  to  impress  upon  his  people  that  white  people 
succeed  by  the  possession  and  the  application  of  the  same 
qualities  which  bring  success  to  colored  people.  At  the 
Chicago  meeting  of  the  league  in  1912  Julius  Rosenwald 
spoke — Julius  Rosenwald,  the  Jewish  philanthropist  who 
has  done  and  is  doing  so  much  to  help  the  Negro.  It  was 
he  who  offered  #25,000  to  any  city  in  the  United  States 
which  would  raise  $75,000  for  a  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  Building  for  colored  men.  It  is  he  also  who 
is  helping  Tuskegee  in  the  building  of  rural  schoolhouses 
as  was  explained  in  the  third  chapter.  He  is  one  of 
Tuskegee's  trustees. 

The  late  Robert  C.  Ogden,  the  New  York  manager  of  the 

219 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Wanamaker  business,  addressed  the  convention  of  1905 
in  New  York.  He  was  a  man  whom  Booker  Washington 
delighted  to  hold  up  to  his  people  as  an  example  of  what  a 
man  could  accomplish  through  his  own  unaided  efforts. 
He  had  begun  his  business  career  at  a  salary  of  $5  a  week, 
and  from  that  as  his  starting-point  he  had  risen  to  be  the 
New  York  head  of  the  greatest  department  store  business 
in  the  country.  He  was  for  twenty-five  years  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Hampton,  a  member  of  the 
Tuskegee  Board,  and  the  originator  and  host  of  the  annual 
educational  pilgrimages  which  gave  leading  Northerners 
a  first  hand  and  intelligent  insight  into  the  dire  need  of 
education  for  the  masses  of  the  people  both  white  and 
black  throughout  the  South.  Much  of  the  educational 
activity  in  the  South  to-day  may  be  traced  to  the  early 
Ogden  educational  pilgrimages. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  spoke  at  the  New  York  meeting  in 
1910.  He  had  just  returned  from  Africa.  He  said  later 
that  nothing  connected  with  his  homecoming  had  touched 
him  so  deeply  as  the  ovation  given  him  by  these,  his  fellow- 
citizens  of  African  descent.  Among  other  white  men  who 
have  spoken  before  the  league  are  Henry  Clews,^  the 
banker;  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  the  Principal  of  Hampton 
Institute,  and  Dr.  J.  H.  Dillard,  president  of  the  Anna  T. 
Jeanes  Foundation  of  Negro  Rural  Schools. 

One  of  Mr.  Washington's  many  methods  for  inspiring 
his  people  to  strive  for  business  efficiency  and  success  was 
to  excite  their  imaginations  by  holding  up  before  them  the 
achievements  of  such  men  as  John  Wanamaker,  Robert 
220 


THE  NEGRO  BUSINESS  MAN 

C.  Ogden,  William  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  Henry  H.  Rogers, 
Julius  Rosenwald,  the  Rockefellers,  and  Andrew  Carnegie. 

Out  of  the  National  Negro  Business  League  have  de- 
veloped the  following  organizations  which  are  affiliated 
with  it: 

The  National  Negro  Funeral  Directors'  Association, 

The  National  Negro  Press  Association, 

The  National  Negro  Bar  Association, 

The  National  Negro  Retail  Merchants'  Association, 

The  National  Association  of  Negro  Insurance  Men. 

Booker  Washington  was  able  to  speak  with  assurance 
and  authority  to  the  business  men  of  his  race  because  he 
practised  what  he  preached.  The  business  methods  which 
he  employed  in  conducting  the  business,  in  distinction 
from  the  educational  affairs,  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  com- 
pare favorably  with  those  of  the  best-managed  industrial 
corporations.  He  may  even  have  appeared  to  be  over- 
insistent  upon  business  accuracy,  system,  and  efficiency,  so 
anxious  was  he  to  belie  the  popular  notion  that  Negroes 
must  of  necessity,  because  they  are  Negroes,  be  slipshod 
and  unsystematic.  In  refutation  of  this  familiar  accusa- 
tion he  built  up  an  institution  almost  as  large  as  Harvard 
University  which  runs  like  clockwork  without  a  single 
white  man  or  woman  having  any  part  in  its  actual  ad- 
ministration. Tuskegee  itself  is  the  most  notable  example 
of  its  founder's  method  of  argument.  No  person  knowing 
the  facts  about  Tuskegee  can  ever  again  honestly  say  that 
Negroes  are  always  and  necessarily  slipshod  and  unsyste- 
matic in  their  business  methods. 

221 


CHAPTER  NINE 

BOOKER      WASHINGTON      AMONG      HIS 

STUDENTS 

IN  SPITE  of  his  absorption  in  guiding  the  destinies  of 
his  race  Booker  Washington  never  lost  interest  in  in- 
dividuals however  humble  or  in  their  individual  affairs 
however  small.  This  was  strikingly  shown  in  his  rela- 
tions to  his  students.  He  never  wearied  in  his  efforts  to 
help  in  the  solution  of  the  life  problems  of  the  hundreds 
of  raw  boys  and  girls  who  each  year  flocked  to  Tuskegee 
and  to  Booker  Washington  with  little  but  hope  and  am- 
bition upon  which  to  build  their  careers.  With  many  of 
these  newcomers  he  not  infrequently  had  his  initial  talk 
before  they  knew  who  he  was.  This  was  made  easy  by  his 
simple  and  unassuming  manner,  which  was  the  exact  op- 
posite to  what  these  unsophisticated  youths  expected  in  a 
great  man.  One  of  the  graduates  of  Tuskegee  in  the  book, 
*' Tuskegee  and  Its  People,"  thus  describes  his  first  meeting 
with  Booker  Washington.  His  experience  was  almost  iden- 
tical with  that  of  many  another  entering  student.  He  says : 
"My  first  glimpse  of  Mr.  Washington  was  had  in  the  de- 
pot at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  where  a  friend  and  I,  on  our 
way  to  Tuskegee,  had  changed  cars  for  the  Tuskegee  train. 
Two  gentlemen  came  into  the  waiting-room  where  we  were 

222 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

seated,  one  a  man  of  splendid  appearance  and  address,  the 
other  a  most  ordinary  appearing  individual,  we  thought. 
The  latter,  addressing  us,  inquired  our  destination.  Upon 
being  told  that  we  were  going  to  Tuskegee,  he  remarked 
that  he  had  heard  that  Tuskegee  was  a  very  hard  place — 
a  place  where  students  were  given  too  much  to  do,  and 
where  the  food  was  very  simple  and  coarse.  He  was 
afraid  we  would  not  stay  there  three  months.  We  as- 
sured him  that  we  were  not  afraid  of  hard  work,  and  meant 
to  finish  the  course  of  study  at  Tuskegee  at  all  hazards. 
He  then  left  us.  Very  soon  after  the  gentleman  who  had 
so  favorably  impressed  us,  and  whom  we  afterward  found 
to  be  the  treasurer  of  the  Tuskegee  Institute,  Mr.  Warren 
Logan,  came  back  and  told  us  our  interlocutor  was  none 
other  than  the  Principal  of  the  school  to  which  we  were 
going." 

Booker  Washington  was  always  keenly  interested  to  get 
at  the  reasons  which  had  impelled  the  new  students  to 
come,  and  they  would  naturally  state  these  reasons  more 
freely  to  a  friendly  unknown  person  than  they  would  to 
the  Principal  of  the  school.  As  previously  mentioned, 
Booker  Washington  always  kept  his  ear  to  the  ground. 
These  raw  boys  and  girls  brought  him  fresh  and  frank  mes- 
sages as  to  how  the  people  were  thinking  and  feeling  about 
Tuskegee  and  those  things  for  which  it  stands. 

Some  time  after  Mr.  Washington's  death  the  students  of 
the  Senior  Class  were  asked  to  write  brief  themes  de- 
scribing their  first  impressions  of  him.  In  one  of  these 
themes  the  boy  writer  says,  "His  general  attitude  did  not 

223 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

bear  out  my  idea  of  how  a  great  man  should  appear.  I  ex- 
pected to  see  him  with  a  diamond  ring  and  riding  in  an 
automobile  on  a  pleasure  trip,  which  most  great  men  do. 
He  was  quiet,  not  overdressed,  nor  yet  self-conscious  of 
the  position  he  held  and  the  influence  he  wielded  among  the 
people.  He  seemed  to  me  a  man  of  great  thoughts,  yet 
not  realizing  his  greatness."  Another  boy  writes:  "One 
of  my  first  questions  after  arriving  at  Tuskegee,  September 
9,  191 2,  and  registering  as  a  student  was  to  ask,  where  is 
Mr.  Washington?  I  was  told  that  he  hardly  ever  stayed 
here  but  was  often  in  the  North.  Two  weeks  later  he  came, 
and  my  first  opportunity  to  see  him  was  one  day  on  the 
street.  I  was  so  enthused  over  him  that  I  went  to  my  room 
and  wrote  a  letter  home  trying  to  describe  him. 

"The  following  Sunday  night  he  lectured  in  the  Chapel. 
His  title  was,  'Have  a  Place  to  Put  Everything  and  Put 
Everything  in  That  Place.'  In  his  talk  he  said:  'There 
are  many  people  who  have  no  system  about  their  work  nor 
home.  Often  you  visit  persons'  homes  and  every  member 
of  the  family  is  looking  for  the  broom.  The  same  is  true  of 
a  match  when  the  time  comes  to  light  the  lamp.' 

"That  talk  was  the  most  impressive  one  that  I  ever 
heard  before  or  since.  From  that  talk  I  have  reaped  more 
benefit  than  any  other.  It  was  the  talk  that  I  took  in  and 
began  practising.  I  first  started  in  my  room  having  a 
place  to  put  everything  and  putting  everything  in  that 
place.  After  getting  my  room  systematized  I  then  began 
putting  this  talk  in  practise  at  my  work,  etc.     .     .     ." 

The  next  quotation  is  from  the  paper  of  a  native  African 
224 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

boy.  He  says:  "My  first  impression,  or,  at  least,  the  first 
time  I  heard  the  name  of  Booker  T.  Washington,  was  about 
the  year  1902.  I  was  then  a  young  boy,  just  arrived  in  one 
of  the  Native  Training  Institutions  existing  in  South 
Africa.  These  schools  train  young  native  boys  primarily 
to  become  teachers  in  their  communities.  As  a  native 
African  I  had  just  acquired  the  elementary  use  of  the 
English  language,  when  the  following  incident  took  place : 
One,  a  native  teacher  from  the  upper  part  of  the  country, 
was  announced  and  that  he  was  to  give  a  lecture  to  the 
'Boys'  Saturday  Evening  Society/ 

"The  meeting  assembled,  and  I  at  once  heard  that  the 
lecture  was  about  a  boy — Booker  T.  Washington — who 
obtained  an  education  through  his  struggles.  ...  I 
did  not  hear  or  understand  more.  But  it  is  strange  to  say 
that  this  name  was  pinned  in  the  bottom  of  my  heart.    .    .    . 

"It  was  during  the  coronation  of  King  George  V  of 
England  that  I  saw  this  name.  I  had  now  finished  that 
school  and  was  teaching.  It  was  printed  in  a  native 
paper  that  Booker  T.  Washington,  an  American  Negro, 
made  an  excellent  speech.  I  cannot,  however,  say  the 
exact  words  of  the  editor,  which  were  in  greatest  praise  of 
that  man,  nor  do  I  recall  the  circumstances  under  which 
Mr.  Washington  had  spoken. 

"When  I  wanted  to  come  to  school  in  this  country  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  find  the  school — as  I  found  later  he 
was  principal  of  one — where  this  man  was  leader;  and  so  I 
came  to  Tuskegee  Institute.  I  found  the  editor  had  well 
described  the  man's  character  and  disposition." 

225 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Still  another  boy  writes:  "I  first  saw  Dr.  Washington 
at  the  Appalachian  Exposition  held  at  Knoxville,  Tenn., 
in  191 2.  It  was  Negro  Day  and  there  were  thousands  of 
Negroes  out  to  hear  Dr.  Washington  speak.  ...  At 
times  he  would  make  the  people  laugh  and  then  again  he 
would  have  a  few  crying.  When  I  saw  the  tears  in  the 
eyes  of  his  listeners,  I  looked  at  Dr.  Washington  and 
thought  of  him  with  awe  because  he  was  so  highly  honored. 
I  thought  of  him  with  admiration  because  he  could  speak  so 
well,  and  I  thought  of  him  with  pride  because  he  was  a 
Negro.  .  .  .  His  speech  made  me  feel  as  if  there  were 
really  a  few  Negro  men  and  women  in  the  world  who  were 
making  a  mark,  and  that  there  was  a  chance  for  more." 

Booker  Washington's  interest  in  the  lives  of  his  students, 
as  in  all  things  else,  showed  his  combination  of  breadth  of 
view  and  attention  to  what  less-thorough  persons  would 
have  considered  trivial  details.  When,  for  instance,  in 
1913  Tuskegee  was  visited  by  one  of  the  very  infrequent 
snowstorms  which  occur  so  far  South,  he  himself  went  from 
building  to  building  to  see  that  they  were  properly  heated 
and  to  many  of  the  rooms,  particularly  of  the  poorer 
students,  to  make  sure  that  they  had  sufficient  bed- 
clothes. During  the  last  three  winters  of  his  life  he  had  a 
confidential  agent  make  an  early  morning  tour  of  all  the 
dormitories  to  make  sure  that  they  were  so  heated  that  the 
students  might  dress  in  comfort  on  getting  up  in  the 
morning. 

Also  when  the  weather  was  unusually  cold  he  would 
make  sure  that  the  boys  who  drove  the  teams  that  hauled 
226 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

wood  and  other  supplies  were  provided  with  gloves  and 
warm  clothing.  One  cold  night  he  sent  for  Mr.  Palmer, 
the  Registrar  of  the  school,  and  said  to  him:  "I  wish  you 
would  seek  out  the  poor  worthy  students  and  see  that  it  is 
made  possible  for  them  to  secure  proper  shoes  and  warm 
clothing.  Some  of  the  most  deserving  of  them  will  often 
actually  suffer  before  they  will  ask  for  assistance.  We'll 
look  out  for  the  expense  some  way."  He  was,  in  fact,  as 
insistent  that  the  students  should  have  comforts  as  he  was 
that  they  should  not  have  luxuries. 

His  attention  to  details  and  the  comfort  of  the  students 
was  well  illustrated  in  the  close  watch  he  kept  over  the 
dining-rooms  and  kitchens  which  he  inspected  every  day  he 
was  on  the  grounds.  Tomkins  dining-hall  is  the  largest 
building  on  the  Institute  grounds  and  is  one  of  the  largest 
dining-halls  in  America.  It  can  seat  over  two  thousand 
persons  at  one  time.  Adjoining  this  hall  is  a  spacious 
dining-room  for  the  teachers  as  well  as  extensive  kitchens 
and  a  bakery.  Underneath  it  is  a  great  assembly  hall 
which  seats  twenty-five  hundred.  Mr.  Washington  would 
usually  appear  before  breakfast  to  assure  himself  at  first 
hand  that  the  stewards,  matrons,  and  cooks  were  giving  the 
students  warm,  nourishing,  and  appetizing  food  upon  which 
to  begin  the  day's  work  on  the  farm  and  in  the  shops  and 
classrooms.  Nothing  made  him  more  indignant  than  to 
find  the  coffee  served  lukewarm  and  the  cereal  watery  or 
the  eggs  stale.  For  such  derelictions  the  guilty  party  was 
promptly  located  and  admonition  or  discharge  followed 
speedily.     Probably  in  nothing  was  his  instinct  for  putting 

227 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

first  things  first  better  shown  than  in  his  insistence  upon 
proper  food,  properly  prepared  and  served  for  both  stu- 
dents and  teachers. 

He  once  said  to  his  students,  as  previously  quoted,  "See 
to  it  that  a  certain  ceremony,  a  certain  importance,  be  at- 
tached to  the  partaking  of  food,  etc.  .  .  ."  To  carry 
out  this  idea  each  table  in  this  great  hall  has  a  centre- 
piece of  ferns,  mosses,  or  flowers  gathered  from  the  woods 
by  the  student  selected  by  his  or  her  companions  to  deco- 
rate the  table  for  that  week.  Boys  and  girls  sit  together 
at  the  tables.  On  Sundays  and  holidays  first  and  second 
prizes  are  given  for  the  tables  most  artistically  decorated. 
Frequently  these  prizes  take  the  form  of  some  coveted 
delicacy  in  the  way  of  food.  Each  day  when  at  the  In- 
stitute Mr.  Washington  would  walk  through  the  dining- 
hall  during  the  noon  meal  and  criticise  these  centrepieces, 
and  things  generally.  He  would  point  out  that  a  certain 
decoration  was  too  gaudy  and  profuse  and  had  in  it  in- 
harmonious colors.  He  would  then  remove  the  unneces- 
sary parts  and  the  discordant  colors  and  point  to  the  im- 
proved effect.  He  would  next  stop  at  a  table  with  nothing 
in  the  way  of  decoration  except  a  few  scrawny  flowers 
stuck  carelessly  into  a  vase.  Picking  up  the  meagre  dis- 
play he  would  say,  "The  boy  or  girl  who  did  this  is  guilty 
of  something  far  worse  than  bad  taste,  and  that  is  laziness ! " 
At  the  next  table  he  would  have  a  word  of  praise  for  the 
simple  and  artistic  effect  which  thny  had  produced  with  a 
centrepiece  of  wood  mosses  and  red  berries.  These  com- 
ments would  be  interspersed  with  an  occasional  admonition 
228 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

to  this  boy  or  that  girl  for  a  slovenly  manner  of  eating,  or  an 
inquiry  of  a  newcomer  as  to  where  he  had  come  from  and 
whether  he  thought  he  was  going  to  be  happy  in  his  new 
surroundings.  An  oft-repeated  cause  of  merriment  was  his 
habit  of  stopping  in  the  middle  of  the  hall,  calling  for  at- 
tention, and  then  asking  the  students  if  they  were  getting 
enough  of  various  articles  which  he  would  name,  such  as 
sweet  potatoes,  corn,  and  blackberries.  Cutting  red  tape 
was  one  of  his  special  delights.  Sometimes  he  would  dis- 
cover, for  instance,  that  certain  vegetables  were  not  being 
served  because  the  steward  had  objected  to  the  price 
charged  by  the  Farm  Department.  He  would  immediately 
order  these  vegetables  served  and  tell  the  protesting  stew- 
ard that  he  could  fight  it  out  with  the  Farm  Department 
while  the  students  were  enjoying  the  vegetables.  From 
the  dining-room  he  would  finally  disappear  into  the 
kitchens  in  his  never-ceasing  campaign  for  cleanliness. 
Over  and  over  again  would  he  repeat  to  students,  teachers, 
and  employees  alike  that  the  public  would  excuse  them  for 
what  they  lacked  in  the  way  of  buildings,  equipment,  and 
even  knowledge,  but  they  would  never  be  excused  for  shift- 
Tessness,  filth,  litter,  or  disorder. 

One  of  the  opportunities  which  he  most  highly  prized  and 
one  of  his  most  effective  means  of  influencing  the  whole 
body  of  students  was  through  his  Sunday  evening  talks  in 
the  Chapel.  Over  two  thousand  students,  teachers, 
teachers'  families,  and  townspeople  would  crowd  into  the 
Chapel  to  hear  these  talks.  They  were  stenographically 
reported  and  published  in  the  school  paper.     In  this  way 

229 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

he  influenced  not  only  the  undergraduates,  but  a  large 
number  of  graduates  and  others  who  subscribed  to  the 
paper  largely  for  the  purpose  of  following  these  talks.  We 
here  quote  from  a  previously  unpublished  (except  in  the 
school  paper)  collection  of  these  talks,  delivered  during  the 
school  term  of  1913-14,  under  the  title  of  "What  Parents 
Would  Like  to  Hear  Concerning  Students  While  at 
School."  The  first  talk  was  called,  "For  Old  and  New 
Students."  In  it  he  said  in  part:  "I  suspect  that  each 
one  of  your  parents  would  like  to  know  that  you  are  learn- 
ing to  read  your  Bible;  not  only  to  read  it  because  you 
have  to,  but  to  read  it  every  day  in  the  year  because  you 
have  learned  to  love  the  Bible;  because  you  have  learned 
day  by  day  to  make  its  teachings  a  part  of  you.  .  .  . 
Each  one  of  you,  in  beginning  your  school  year,  should 
have  a  Bible,  and  you  should  make  that  Bible  a  part  of 
your  school  life,  a  part  of  your  very  nature,  and  always,  no 
matter  how  busy  the  day  may  be,  no  matter  how  many  mis- 
takes, no  matter  how  many  failures  you  make  in  other  di- 
rections, do  not  fail  to  find  a  few  minutes  to  study  or  read 
your  Bible. 

"The  greatest  people  in  the  world,  those  who  are  most 
learned;  those  who  bear  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of 
the  world,  are  persons  who  are  not  ashamed  to  let  the 
world  know  not  only  that  they  believe  in  the  Bible,  but 
that  they  read  it." 

And  this  was  the  advice  of  a  man  who  never  preached 
what  he  did  not  practise  and  who  only  a  few  years  be- 
fore had  been  denounced  by  many  of  the  preachers  of 
230 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

his  own  race  as  a  Godless  man,  building  up  a  Godless 
school ! 

A  little  further  on  he  said:  "In  many  cases  you  have 
come  from  homes  where  there  was  no  regular  time  for  get- 
ting up  in  the  morning,  no  regular  time  for  eating  your 
meals,  and  no  regular  time  for  going  to  bed. 

"Now  the  basis  of  civilization  is  system,  order,  regu- 
larity. A  race  or  an  individual  which  has  no  fixed  habits, 
no  fixed  place  of  abode,  no  time  for  going  to  bed,  for  getting 
up  in  the  morning,  for  going  to  work;  no  arrangement, 
order,  or  system  in  all  the  ordinary  business  of  life,  such  a 
race  and  such  an  individual  are  lacking  in  self-control, 
lacking  in  some  of  the  fundamentals  of  civilization.    .    .    . 

"If  you  take  advantage  of  all  these  opportunities,  if 
your  minds  are  so  disposed  that  you  can  welcome  and 
make  the  most  of  these  advantages,  these  habits  of  order 
and  system  will  soon  be  so  fixed,  so  ingrained,  so  thor- 
oughly a  part  of  you  that  you  will  no  longer  tolerate  dis- 
order anywhere,  that  you  will  not  be  willing  to  endure 
the  old  slovenly  habits  which  so  many  of  you  brought 
with  you  when  you  came  here." 

And  later,  in  speaking  of  the  haphazard,  slipshod,  ir- 
regular meal,  he  said:  "Instead  of  bringing  the  family 
together  it  has  put  them  wider  apart.  A  house  in  which 
the  family  table  is  a  mere  lunch-counter  is  not  and  cannot 
be  a  home." 

And  just  before  concluding  this  talk  he  said :  "Now  what 
is  true  of  this  school  is  true  of  the  world  at  large.  This 
is  a  little  world  of  itself.     It  is  a  small  sample  of  civiliza- 

231 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

tion,  an  experiment  station,  so  to  speak,  in  which  we  are 
trying  to  prepare  you  to  live  in  a  manner  a  little  more 
orderly,  a  little  more  efficient,  and  a  little  more  civilized 
than  you  have  lived  heretofore.  If  you  are  not  able  to 
live  and  succeed  here,  you  will  not  be  able  to  live  and 
succeed  in  the  world  outside.  If  we  do  not  want  you 
here,  if  we  cannot  get  on  with  you  here,  it  will  mean  that 
the  world  outside  will  not  want  you,  will  not  be  able  to 
get  on  with  you." 

Probably  no  educator  ever  kept  more  constantly  before 
his  own  mind  and  before  the  minds  of  his  students  and 
teachers  that  the  purpose  of  education  is  preparation  for 
right  living  than  did  Booker  Washington.  Everything 
that  did  not  make  for  this  end  he  eliminated,  regardless 
of  customs  and  traditions,  everything  which  did  make 
for  this  end  he  included,  equally  regardless  of  customs 
and  traditions. 

In  a  talk  called,  "Honor  Thy  Father  and  Thy  Mother," 
the  second  of  this  series,  he  made  this  rather  touching 
statement:  "Many  of  your  parents  are  poor.  Not  only 
that,  but  many  of  them  are  ignorant,  at  least,  so  far  as 
books  are  concerned.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  in  every 
case  they  have  done  something  for  you.  It  may  have 
been,  in  many  cases  I  know  that  it  has  been,  a  very  little, 
but  out  of  their  poverty  and  out  of  their  ignorance  they 
have  done  something.  They  have  made  it  possible,  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  for  you  to  come  here,  and  no  matter 
how  poor  they  are,  no  matter  how  ignorant  they  are,  their 
ambition  is  largely  centred  in  you." 
232 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

This  is  one  of  the  many  statements  which  show  that 
Booker  Washington  had  no  illusions  as  to  the  ignorance 
and  poverty  of  the  rank  and  file  of  his  people,  and  yet  with 
this  full  knowledge  and  realization  he  never  became  dis- 
couraged. 

In  another  of  these  talks,  on  "The  Importance  of  Sim- 
plicity," he  said:  "In  many  cases  young  men  in  cities 
do  not  own  anything  in  the  world  except  what  they  are 
carrying  around  on  their  backs.  They  have  a  few  collars 
and  a  few  cuffs,  some  bright-colored  socks  and  neckties, 
and  that  is  all;  nothing  would  be  left  of  the  man  if  you 
were  to  bury  these  things.  A  few  collars  and  cuffs,  neck- 
ties, and  a  few  pieces  of  cheap  jewelry — that  is  all  there  is 
of  such  men." 

Later  in  the  same  talk  he  said:  "Short,  simple,  direct 
sentences  indicate  education,  indicate  culture,  indicate 
common  sense.  Some  people  think  the  way  for  them  to 
show  their  education  is  by  using  big;words,  elaborate  sen- 
tences, and  by  discussing  subjects  which  nobody  on  earth 
can  understand. 

"Whenever  you  hear  a  man  using  words  or  talking  on 
i.  subject  that  you  can't  understand,  you  can  be  very 
sure  that  the  man  does  not  understand  himself  what  he  is 
trying  to  talk  about.  If  a  man  is  talking  about  any  sub- 
ject, literary  or  what  not,  of  which  he  is  really  master, 
he  will  be  so  direct,  so  simple,  so  perfectly  clear  and  in- 
telligible in  the  discussion  of  that  subject  that  the  most 
humble  person  can  understand  what  he  is  saying." 

In  a  talk  on  "Being  Polite,"  he  said:  "It  is  often  dif- 

233 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

ficult,  I  might  better  say,  it  is  always  difficult,  for  persons 
to  have  genuine  politeness  in  their  hearts  when  they  live 
in  a  country  that  is  inhabited  by  different  races.  Here 
in  the  South,  and  throughout  this  country,  for  that 
matter,  we  come  into  contact  with  persons  of  another 
race,  persons  of  another  color.  It  takes  some  effort,  some 
training,  and  often  some  determination  to  say,  in  dealing 
with  a  person  of  another  race,  of  another  color,  I  will  be 
polite;  I  will  be  kind;  I  will  be  considerate." 

In  a  talk  on  "Being  Economical,"  he  said:  "You  will 
help  yourself  and  help  this  school  if  you  will  say  to  yourself 
constantly:  'This  is  my  home;  this  property  does  not 
belong  exclusively  to  the  Trustees,  but  it  is  mine;  I  am  a 
trustee,  every  student  is  a  trustee  of  this  institution. 
How  can  I  make  every  dollar  go  as  far  as  possible?  How 
can  I  help  cut  down  expenses  here?"  And  later  on,  "I 
want  you  to  get  into  the  habit  of  saying:  'This  institution 
belongs  to  me,  belongs  to  my  race;  every  dollar  that  is 
spent  here  is  spent  for  my  benefit  and  for  the  benefit  of  my 
race;  every  cent  that  is  wasted  here  is  my  loss  and  the 
loss  of  all  the  generations  that  come  after  me.'" 

In  a  talk  on  "The  Use  of  Time,"  he  said:  "You  hear 
people  speaking  sometimes  about  'killing  time.'  No 
civilized  man  should  be  allowed  to  kill  time  any  more  than 
he  should  be  allowed  to  destroy  any  of  the  other  natural 
resources.  When  you  find  a  man  engaged  in  'killing  time* 
you  will  find  a  man  who  is  disobeying  one  of  the  most 
fundamental  laws  of  civilization.  A  man  who  habit- 
ually  devotes   himself  to   'killing  time'   is  a  dangerous 

234 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

citizen  and  the  law  against  vagrancy  is  aimed  against 
him. 

In  a  talk  on  "Being  All  Right,  But,"  he  said:  "You 
frequently  hear  it  said  of  certain  persons  in  one  connection 
or  another  that  'they  are  all  right,  except,'  or  'they  are 
all  right,  but/  You  are  thinking,  perhaps,  of  employing 
some  one  for  this  or  that  important  service  and  among 
others  the  question  is  asked:  'What  kind  of  disposition 
has  this  one  or  that  one?'     Very  often  you  receive  an 

answer  something  like  this:  'They  are  all  right,  but ' 

That  'but'  carries  with  it  a  lot  of  things.  There  are  too 
many  people  in  the  world  who  are  'all  right,  but.'  We 
want  to  get  rid  of  just  as  many  of  these  'buts'  as  we 
can."  And  in  concluding  the  same  talk  he  said:  "Think 
big  thoughts,  think  about  big  questions,  read  big  books, 
and,  most  of  all,  get  into  contact  with  the  big  people  of 
your  acquaintance  and  get  out  from  under  the  control 
of  the  little  people  of  your  acquaintance.  If  you  will  do 
this,  gradually  you  will  find  yourself  better  fitted  for  life; 
you  will  find  yourself  happier  and  better  fitted  to  render 
service.     .     .     ." 

'  In  a  talk  on  "The  Power  of  Persistence,"  he  said:  "Al- 
ways keep  your  eye  on  the  student  who  seems  to  be  dull, 
who  is  slow  in  his  studies,  who  has  to  repeat  his  class,  but 
who  keeps  plodding  along  doggedly,  determinedly,  until  he 
has  finished  the  course  of  study. 

"Keep  your  eye  on  that  student  after  he  has  gone  out 
into  the  world.  He  has  learned  to  endure,  he  has  learned 
to  stick  to  his  job  in  season  and  out  of  season.     .     .     ." 

^3  S 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

In  a  talk  on  "Standing  Still,"  he  said:  "People  say  of 
us  that,  as  a  race,  we  are  not  capable  of  going  very  far, 
not  capable  of  making  steady,  persistent  progress.  We 
go  a  little  way  and  there  we  stop,  stand  still,  and  stagnate. 
.  .  .  Now  one  of  the  things  which  this  school  aims 
to  do  for  you  and  through  you  is  to  change,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  reputation  of  our  people  in  so  far  as  they  are 
regarded  as  unprogressive,  lacking  in  initiative  and  in 
ability  to  go  forward  unwaveringly." 

The  concluding  talk  of  this  series,  and  perhaps  the 
strongest  of  them  all,  was  entitled,  "Thou  Shalt  Not  Steal." 
In  it  he  said:  "I  believe  if  you  could  get  down  into  the 
deep,  dark  corners  of  your  own  hearts,  and  if  you  could 
get  deep  down  into  the  hearts  of  your  parents,  you  could 
find  there,  in  both  cases,  a  misgiving,  a  sense  of  danger, 
never  clearly  expressed  but  always  present,  a  fear  that 
some  time,  somewhere,  trouble  was  in  store  for  you  and 
for  them. 

"This  is  so  far  true,  in  some  cases  of  which  I  know,  that 
if  parents  should  some  day  learn  that  their  children  were 
in  trouble  they  would  not  be  surprised,  because  they  have 
expected  it,  looked  forward  to  it,  and  feared  it;  because 
they  have  known  and  suspected  all  along  that  you  had 
never  thoroughly  learned  to  control  yourself  when  deal- 
ing with  other  people's  property.     .     .     ." 

Later  on  he  added:  "This  disposition  to  pilfer  was,  to 
a  large  extent,  a  part  of  the  history  of  slavery.  It  was 
rare  when  colored  people  who  belonged  to  a  white  family 
where  they  served  as  cooks,  butlers,  or  in  some  other  form 
236 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

of  household  service,  did  not  feel  that  everything  belong- 
ing to  the  white  family  belonged  equally  to  them.  Thus, 
when  freedom  came,  it  was  difficult  to  get  the  colored 
cook  to  feel  that  she  was  a  mere  employee,  that  in  the 
wages  she  received  by  the  week  or  month  she  was  being 
paid  for  her  services  for  cooking.  It  was  very  hard  to 
get  her  away  from  the  customs  and  practises  of  slavery, 
especially  when  receiving  very  small  wages. 

"In  many  cases  boys  and  girls  have  seen  or  have  known 
that  their  mothers  kept  up  this  practice  of  pilfering  from 
persons  for  whom  they  cooked.  They  have  seen  it  going 
on  day  after  day  and  year  after  year  in  their  own  homes 
and  have  observed  that  employers  seem  to  expect  it,  wink 
at  it,  at  any  rate,  put  up  with  it.  While  they  know,  as 
their  parents  know,  that  it  is  wrong,  they  have  neverthe- 
less come  to  feel  that  it  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  black 
folk  and  white  folk  get  on  together;  one  of  the  indirect 
ways,  in  other  words,  in  which  black  people  have  learned 
to  recompense  themselves  for  disadvantages  which  they 
suffer  in  other  directions." 

/  In  conclusion  he  said:  "Each  one  of  you  can  do  some- 
thing toward  solving  the  race  problem,  for  example,  by 
making,  each  for  himself,  a  reputation  for  honesty  in  the 
community  in  which  you  live.  If  in  the  part  of  the  coun- 
try where  you  now  live  members  of  our  race  have  a  rep- 
utation for  carelessness,  looseness  in  regard  to  the  owner- 
ship of  property,  you  can  help  to  solve  the  race  problem, 
and  make  life  here  in  the  South  more  comfortable  for 
every  other  member  of  the  race  if  you  will  win  for  your- 

237 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

self  a  reputation  for  downright  honesty  and  integrity  in 
all  your  dealings  with  your  neighbors,  whether  they  be 
white  or  black." 

Mr.  Washington  once  said,  "In  all  my  teaching  I  have 
watched  carefully  the  influence  of  the  toothbrush,  and 
I  am  convinced  that  there  are  few  single  agencies  of  civili- 
zation that  are  more  far-reaching."  He  made  periodic 
tours  of  the  students'  rooms  to  find  out  what  students  if 
any  were  without  toothbrushes.  The  possession  and 
use  of  a  toothbrush  is  one  of  the  entrance  requirements 
for  Tuskegee.  In  this  connection  he  used  to  tell  with  a 
chuckle  the  reply  of  the  girl  who  in  answer  to  his  question 
as  to  whose  toothbrush  he  found  on  the  washstand  said, 
"That  is  ours,"  referring  to  her  roommate  and  herself. 

In  his  tours  of  inspection  of  the  students'  rooms  he 
would  also  inquire  how  many  nightgowns  they  owned. 
He  insisted  that  every  student  should  have  at  least  two 
nightgowns.  He  was  constantly  impressing  upon  the 
students  that  decent,  respectable  people  do  not  sleep  in 
the  garments  in  which  they  work  during  the  day.  In 
fact,  he  preached  the  gospel  of  the  nightgown  and  the 
toothbrush  as  insistently  as  he  did  the  gospel  of  work 
and  simplicity. 

He  constantly  insisted  that  the  welfare  of  the  students 
should  be  at  all  times  the  dominant  consideration  in  the 
conduct  of  the  institution.  When  the  teachers  would 
sometimes  complain  that  their  welfare  was  not  sufficiently 
considered  he  would  remind  them  that  the  Institute  was 
being  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the  students  and  that 
238 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

teachers  were  not  required  except  for  the  benefit  of  the 
students.  That  the  students  should  be  happy  was  al- 
most a  mania  with  him.  He  was  constantly  sending 
for  officers  and  teachers  to  inquire  as  to  whether  the 
students  seemed  happy. 

To  the  delight  of  the  students  he  would  occasionally  call 
a  mass-meeting  where  he  would  call  upon  them  one  by 
one  to  get  up  and  tell  him  of  anything  that  was  wrong,  of 
anything  that  was  keeping  them  from  being  as  happy  as 
he  wanted  them  to  be.  It  was  understood  that  every- 
thing that  a  student  said  in  such  a  meeting  would  be  re- 
garded as  a  confidence  and  that  nothing  that  he  said 
would  be  used  against  him.  The  teachers  sometimes  pro- 
tested against  the  unbridled  criticism  which  Mr.  Wash- 
ington permitted  in  these  meetings.  He,  however,  con- 
tinued them  without  modification,  and  while  many  of 
the  students'  complaints  were  grossly  exaggerated  their 
statements  nevertheless  led  to  reforms  in  some  important 
particulars.  The  meetings  undoubtedly  added  greatly  to 
the  contentment  and  happiness  of  the  student  body. 

He  was  always  trying  to  protect  the  poorer  students 
against  the  danger  of  being  embarrassed  or  humiliated 
by  the  more  fortunate  ones.  In  this  connection  he  was 
constantly  resisting  the  importunities  of  students  and 
teachers  who  wanted  to  charge  admission  fees  to  this  or 
that  game  or  entertainment.  When  the  occasion  really 
demanded  and  justified  an  admission  fee  he  would  make 
secret  arrangements  with  the  management  to  have  the 
poorer  students  admitted  at  his  personal  expense. 

239 


BOOKER  T.   WASHINGTON 

His  willingness  to  hear  the  students'  grievances  was  a 
characteristic  not  always  appreciated  by  the  officers  and 
teachers.  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  right  of  petition 
either  for  a  group  or  an  individual.  No  matter  how  pressed 
and  driven  he  was  with  business  no  student  or  group  of 
students,  and  no  teacher  or  group  of  teachers,  was  too 
humble  or  obscure  in  the  school's  life  to  win  a  personal 
hearing.  He  would  without  hesitation  reopen  and  pains- 
takingly review  a  case,  already  decided  by  the  Executive 
Council,  if  he  thought  there  was  the  slightest  chance  that 
an  injustice  had  been  done.  He  insisted  upon  giving  the 
accused  not  only  "a  square  deal,"  but  the  benefit  of  every 
doubt.  On  the  other  hand,  when  there  was  no  reasonable 
doubt  of  guilt  no  one  could  be  more  stern  and  unrelenting 
than  he  in  meting  out  justice. 

Mr.  Washington  always  encouraged  and  helped  every 
ambitious  student  who  came  to  Tuskegee  to  develop  his 
capacities  to  the  utmost  no  matter  whether  they  were 
large  or  small.  Years  ago  a  student,  William  Sidney 
Pittman,  showed  a  particular  aptitude  for  carpentry  and 
draftsmanship.  After  working  his  way  through  Tuskegee 
he  was  very  anxious  to  take  a  course  in  architecture.  Mr. 
Washington  arranged  to  have  the  Institute  advance  him 
the  money  for  a  three  years'  course  at  the  Drexel  Institute 
of  Philadelphia,  on  the  understanding  that  he  would  re- 
turn to  Tuskegee  as  a  teacher  after  his  graduation  and 
from  his  earnings  pay  back  to  the  school  all  that  had  been 
advanced  for  his  training  at  Drexel.  Pittman's  record 
at  Drexel  was  wholly  satisfactory.  He  returned  to  Tuske- 
240 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

gee  and  repaid  his  loan  in  accordance  with  the  agreement. 
He  has  since  won  the  competitive  award  for  the  design  of 
the  Negro  Building  at  the  Jamestown  Exposition,  has 
built  a  large  number  of  public  and  semi-public  buildings 
throughout  the  South,  including  the  Carnegie  Library  at 
Houston,  Texas;  a  Pythian  Temple  at  Dallas,  Texas, 
where  he  lives,  for  the  Negro  members  of  the  Knights  of 
Pythias;  the  Collis  P.  Huntington  Memorial  Building  at 
Tuskegee,  and  a  number  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation buildings  for  colored  men.  In  1907  he  married 
Mr.  Washington's  only  daughter,  Portia  Marshall  Wash- 
ington, after  her  graduation  from  Bradford  Academy, 
Massachusetts.  He  is  now  generally  regarded  as  the 
foremost  architect  of  his  race. 

Somewhat  later  Mr.  Washington  succeeded  in  securing 
some  scholarships  which  enabled  promising  Tuskegee 
graduates  to  take  two  years  of  post-graduate  work  in 
teaching  methods  at  the  Teachers'  College  of  Columbia 
University.  These  scholarships  were  given  by  John 
Crosby  Brown,  V.  Everett  Macy,  and  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
Jr.  In  each  case  these  students  were  required  to  return 
to  Tuskegee  as  teachers  for  two  years — the  same  time  as 
their  course  at  Columbia.  Dean  Russell  of  the  Teachers' 
College  has  testified  to  the  earnestness  and  high  character 
of  these  Tuskegee  graduates. 

As  measured  by  the  Tuskegee  standard  of  success,  which 
is  service  to  others,  perhaps  the  most  successful  of  all 
Tuskegee's  graduates  is  William  H.  Holtzclaw,  trie  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Utica  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute  of 

241 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Mississippi.  There  is  no  school  that  has  better  emulated 
the  best  there  is  in  Tuskegee  Institute,  and  there  is  no 
graduate  of  Tuskegee  that  has  followed  more  faithfully 
and  effectively  in  Booker  Washington's  footsteps.  Holtz- 
claw  has  told  his  own  story  in  an  admirably  written  and 
most  interesting  book  entitled,  "The  Black  Man's  Bur- 
den." Starting  in  1903  with  a  capital  of  seventy-five 
cents,  no  land  and  no  buildings  in  a  little  one-room, 
ramshackle  log  cabin,  which  he  did  not  own  and  in  which 
he  and  his  wife  lived  as  well  as  taught,  Holtzclaw  now  has 
an  annual  enrollment  of  nearly  five  hundred  students 
and  a  faculty  of  thirty  teachers.  The  school  through  its 
varied  forms  of  extension  work  influences  yearly  about 
thirty  thousand  people.  It  owns  seventeen  hundred  acres 
of  land  and  conducts  twenty  different  industries  aside 
from  its  academic  work.  The  buildings  and  property 
are  valued  at  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars. 
It  has  also  its  own  electric  light  plant  and  water-works  and 
an  endowment  of  over  thirty-two  thousand  dollars.  In 
concluding  his  book  Mr.  Holtzclaw  says:  "I  see  more 
clearly  than  ever  before  the  great  task  that  is  before  me, 
and  I  propose  to  continue  the  struggle.  It  is  an  appalling 
task:  a  State  with  more  than  a  million  Negroes  to  be  edu- 
cated, with  half  a  million  children  of  school  age,  35 
per  cent,  of  whom  at  the  present  time  attend  no  school 
at  all  (only  36  per  cent,  in  average  attendance),  a 
State  whose  dual  school  system  makes  it  impossible 
to  furnish  more  than  a  mere  pittance  for  the  education  of 
each  child — yet  these  children  must  be  educated,  must  be 
242 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

unfettered,  set  free.  That  freedom  for  which  Christian 
men  and  women,  North  and  South,  have  worked  and 
prayed  so  long  must  be  realized  in  the  lives  of  these  young 
people.  This,  then,  is  my  task,  the  war  that  I  must  wage; 
and  I  propose  to  stay  on  the  firing-line  and  fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith." 

Another  Tuskegee  graduate  in  whom  Mr.  Washington 
was  especially  interested  is  Isaac  Fisher.  Fisher  has 
been  awarded  the  following  prizes  for  his  writings: 

"What  We've  Learned  About  the  Rum  Question," 
$500;  "German  and  American  Methods  of  Regulating 
Trusts,"  #400  (in  order  to  write  this  paper  Mr.  Fisher 
had  to  acquire  a  reading  knowledge  of  German  which  he 
did  alone  and  unaided  in  a  few  months'  time;  "Ten  of  the 
Best  Reasons  Why  People  Should  Live  in  Missouri," 
#100;  "A  Plan  to  Give  the  South  a  System  of  Highways 
Suited  to  Its  Needs,  #100;  "The  Most  Practicable  Method 
of  Beginning  a  Tariff  Reduction,"  honorable  mention. 
(Upon  the  request  of  the  chief  examiner  of  the  United 
States  Tariff  Board  this  essay  was  sent  to  that  body  for 
its  use.)  Besides  these,  Mr.  Fisher  has  taken  several 
minor  prizes  for  compositions  on  various  subjects. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say,  however,  whether  Booker 
Washington  showed  greater  interest  in  the  most  brilliant 
or  the  most  backward  students.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
most  backward  students  won  his  special  attention  and 
encouragement. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  school  there  was  a  student  by 
the  name  of  Jailous  Perdue  whom  Mr.  Washington  con- 

243 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

stantly  encouraged  and  in  whom  he  never  lost  faith  in 
spite  of  his  almost  total  failure  to  master  his  classroom 
work.  Monroe  N.  Work,  the  statistician  of  the  Institute 
and  the  editor  of  "The  Negro  Year  Book,"  under  the  title 
"The  Man  Who  Failed,"  has  thus  told  Perdue's  story: 

"Back  in  the  days  when  the  cooking  for  students  at 
Tuskegee  was  done  out  of  doors  in  pots  and  the  principal 
entrance  requirement  was  a  'desire  to  make  something 
of  himself  a  young  man,  Jailous  Perdue,  came  to  Tuske- 
gee to  get  an  education.  He  was  financially  poor  and 
intellectually  dull.  Examinations  he  could  not  pass. 
After  struggling  along  for  several  years  and  accumulating 
a  lot  of  examination  failures,  he  decided  to  quit  school,  go 
out  to  work  and  help  educate  his  sisters.  Although  he 
had  failed  in  his  literary  subjects,  he  had  nevertheless  got 
an  education  in  how  to  use  his  hands.  He  had  learned 
to  be  a  carpenter.  Out  in  the  world  he  went  and  began 
to  work  at  his  trade.  As  soon  as  he  had  earned  a  little 
money  he  placed  three  of  his  sisters  in  school  at  Tuskegee, 
and  with  the  help  of  his  brother  Augustus,  who  had 
graduated  some  time  before,  supported  two  of  them  there 
for  three  years  and  one  for  four  years. 

"In  the  meantime  he  had  succeeded  at  his  trade  and 
gone  into  business  for  himself  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  as 
a  contractor  and  builder.  Here  also  he  was  successful 
and  did  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  work.  No  job 
was  too  small  nor  too  large  for  him  to  make  a  bid  on. 
If  he  did  not  have  a  contract  of  his  own  he  was  not  above 
working  for  some  other  contractor,  and  as  a  result  he  was 
244 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 

always  busy.  He  has  superintended  the  construction  of 
some  of  the  largest  buildings  in  Montgomery.  Among 
the  buildings  the  erection  of  which  he  has  superintended 
are  the  Exchange  Hotel,  at  a  cost  of  #150,000;  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  at  a  cost  of  #175,000;  the  First  National 
Bank  Building,  at  a  cost  of  #350,000;  and  the  Bell  Build- 
ing, at  a  cost  of  #450,000.  Perdue  also  assisted  as  fore- 
man or  assistant  foreman  in  erecting  many  of  the  important 
buildings  at  Tuskegee  Institute,  such  as  the  Principal's 
house,  the  chapel,  the  library,  Rockefeller  Hall,  the 
Academic  Building,  and  the  Millbank  Agricultural  Build- 
ing. 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Mr.  Perdue  has  ac- 
cumulated property  or  that  he  owns  a  good  home  in  Mont- 
gomery, for  in  these  progressive  days  every  black  man  in 
the  South  with  any  foresight  is  investing  some  part  of  his 
earnings  in  property.  The  most  interesting  and  some- 
what remarkable  thing  about  the  career  of  Perdue  and 
the  greatest  measure  of  his  success  is  that  twenty-three 
years  after  he  had  left  Tuskegee  a  literary  failure  he  was 
asked  to  come  back  and  become  a  member  of  the  faculty 
as  an  instructor  in  carpentry.  Thus  it  was  that  the  man 
who  failed  succeeded  and  returned  to  the  scene  of  his 
failure  a  success.  Perdue  was  constantly  encouraged  by 
Mr.  Washington.  He  came  under  the  type  of  those  who 
were  not  brilliant,  but  who  were  always  in  his  opinion 
worthy  of  help  and  encouragement." 

Washington  A.  Tate  was  even  duller  in  books  than 
Perdue.     During  his  early  years  at  Tuskegee  he  seemed 

24S 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

unable  to  grasp  the  most  rudimentary  information.  His 
native  dullness  was  made  unpleasant  and  aggressive  by  a 
combative  disposition.  He  was  constantly  trying  to  prove 
to  his  exasperated  teachers  that  he  knew  what  he  did  not 
know.  He  was  almost  twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he 
reached  the  Institute  and  entered  the  lowest  primary 
grade.  He  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  passing  any 
examinations  and  never  succeeded  in  passing  all  that  were 
required.  Motions  were  constantly  made  and  passed 
in  faculty  meetings  to  drop  Tate,  and  were  as  constantly 
vetoed  by  Mr.  Washington  on  the  plea  of  giving  him  one 
more  chance.  Finally  when  Tate's  time  to  graduate 
came  the  teachers  in  a  body  protested  against  giving  him 
a  diploma.  Mr.  Washington  argued  that  a  man  who  had 
made  all  the  sacrifices  Tate  had  made  at  his  age  to  stay 
in  school,  a  man  who  had  worked  early  and  late  in  fair 
weather  and  foul  for  the  school,  a  man  who  had  stuck  to 
his  task  in  the  face  of  repeated  failures  and  discourage- 
ments, had  in  him  something  better  than  the  mere  ability 
to  pass  examinations.  Through  Mr.  Washington's  inter- 
cession for  him  Tate  got  his  diploma.  The  next  day  Mr. 
Washington  had  him  employed  to  take  charge  of  the 
school's  piggery.  Because  of  his  hard,  conscientious, 
and  effective  work  in  this  capacity  he  was  afterward 
recommended  to  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture at  Washington  as  the  proper  man  to  take  charge 
of  the  United  States  demonstration  work  in  Macon 
County,  Ala.  Tate  proved  to  be  one  of  the  Govern- 
ment's most  successful  demonstration  agents.  He  is 
246 


AMONG  HIS  STUDENTS 
now  farming  successfully  on  his  own  account  in  an  ad- 
joining county. 

Booker  Washington,  as  previously  pointed  out,  saw 
very  much  more  clearly  than  most  educators  that  educa- 
tion's only  purpose  and  sole  justification  lies  in  prepara- 
tion for  right  living.  A  man  who  has  passed  all  manner  of 
examinations  may  not  be  prepared  to  live  rightly  and  hence 
may  not  justly  claim  to  be  educated.  A  man  who  has 
failed  to  pass  examinations  may  be  prepared  for  right 
living  and  hence  may  justly  be  called  an  educated  man. 
In  other  words,  Booker  Washington  realized  that  education 
was  primarily  a  matter  of  the  development  of  character 
and  only  secondarily  a  matter  of  the  acquisition  of  in- 
formation. 


247 


CHAPTER  TEN 

RAISING  HUNDREPS  OF  THOUSANDS  A  YEAR 

DURING  recent  years  the  expenses  of  Tuskegee  Insti- 
tute have  run  to  between  $250,000  and  $300,000  a  year. 
Of  this  sum  Booker  Washington  had  to  raise  over  $100,000 
annually  aside  from  the  large  sums  constantly  demanded 
for  new  equipment  such  as  the  great  central  heating  and 
power  plant  which  was  installed  in  191 5  at  a  cost  of  more 
than  $245,000. 

At  the  ceremonies  commemorating  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Tuskegee  Institute  Presi- 
dent Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard  was  one  of  the  speakers. 
He  said  that  one  of  his  "first  impressions  of  Tuskegee 
Institute,"  after  just  a  glimpse,  was  "that  the  oldest  and 
now  largest  American  Institution  of  learning  was  more 
than  200  years  arriving  at  the  possession  of  much  less 
land,  fewer  buildings,  and  a  smaller  quick  capital  than 
Tuskegee  had  come  to  possess  in  twenty-five  years. 
"That's  just  a  fact,"  he  said,  "Harvard  University  was 
not  as  rich  after  living  two  hundred  years  among  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  as  Tuskegee  is  to-day,  after 
having  lived  twenty-five  years  among  the  people  of  Ala- 
bama. And  that's  the  first  impression  that  I  have  re- 
ceived here. 
248 


< 


o  l."  2  u 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 


<c 


'This  evening  I  have  received  another  impression  from 
your  Principal.  He  said  that  the  great  need  of  Tuskegee, 
to-day,  was  a  considerable  sum  of  money,  which  could  be 
used  at  the  discretion  of  the  Trustees,  to  fill  gaps,  to  make 
improvements,  and  to  enlarge  and  strengthen  the  different 
branches  of  the  institution.  Now  I  should  not  find  it 
possible  to  state  in  more  precise  terms  the  present  needs 
of  Harvard  University.  The  needs  of  these  two  institu- 
tions, situated,  to  be  sure,  in  very  different  communities, 
and  founded  on  very  different  dates,  are  precisely  the 
same."  This  comparison  is  the  more  striking  when  we 
realize  that  President  Eliot  had  at  the  time  been  at  the 
head  of  Harvard  University  for  thirty  years,  five  years 
longer  than  Tuskegee  had  been  in  existence — President 
Eliot  of  whom  it  was  said,  "When  he  goes  to  rich  men  they 
just  throw  up  their  hands  and  say,  'Don't  shoot!  How 
much  do  you  want  ?' " 

The  magnitude  of  Booker  Washington's  financial  task 
is  indicated  in  his  last  annual  report  which  he  made  to  his 
Trustees  in  191 5.     He  reported: 

"As  of  May  31st,  we  have  received  from  all  sources  for 
current  expenses  $268,825.17;  for  buildings  and  improve- 
ments, $28,919.47;  for  endowment,  $28,102.09;  from 
undesignated  legacies,  $53,858.10,  making  the  total 
receipts  for  the  purposes  named  for  the  year  $379,704.83. 

"The  gifts  to  the  Endowment  Fund  for  the  year 
amounting  to  $28,102.09  now  make  the  Fund  stand  at 
$1,970,214.17. 

cThe  budget  recommended  for  your  consideration  for 

249 


(c 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

the  new  year  calls  for  an  expenditure  for  current  expenses, 
repairs,  renewals,  and  equipment  of  #291,567.92.     .     .     ." 

Later  in  the  report  he  said:  "Notwithstanding  the  de- 
pressed financial  condition  of  a  large  part  of  the  country, 
I  feel  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  for  us  in  any  degree  to 
slacken  our  efforts  to  keep  the  school  before  the  public 
or  to  get  funds.  I  believe,  as  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  Principal 
of  the  Hampton  Institute,  has  often  expressed  it,  that  a 
large  part  of  the  mission  of  both  Hampton  and  Tuskegee 
is  to  keep  the  cause  of  Negro  education  before  the  country, 
and  that  the  benefits  coming  from  such  efforts  of  publicity 
do  not  confine  themselves  alone  to  Hampton  and  Tuskegee, 
but  benefit  all  the  schools  in  the  South.  With  this  end 
in  view,  I  very  much  hope  that  the  Trustees  may  see  their 
way  clear  to  encourage  and  help  us  as  far  as  possible  in 
holding  a  number  of  large  public  meetings  during  the 
coming  year."  These  were  brave  words  for  a  dying  man. 
Five  months  later  he  died  of  sheer  exhaustion  shortly 
after  addressing  one  of  these  "large  public  meetings." 
They  also  show  the  breadth  of  his  conception  of  his  task. 
You  will  note  that  he  points  out  that  such  publicity  as 
he  urges,  "benefits  all  the  schools  in  the  South" — not 
merely  the  schools  for  Negroes,  but  "all  the  schools." 
It  never  occurred  to  him  to  limit  his  sense  of  responsibility 
to  his  own  school  nor  even  to  the  schools  for  his  own  race. 
As  previously  mentioned  he  would  sometimes  devote  an 
entire  public  address  to  an  appeal  for  more  and  better 
schools  for  the  poor  whites  of  the  South. 

Booker  Washington's  money-raising  efforts  consumed 
250 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

two-thirds  of  his  time  and  perhaps  even  more  of  his 
strength  and  energy.  He  planned  these  money-raising 
campaigns  just  as  carefully  as  a  good  general  plans  a 
military  campaign.  His  last  big  money-raising  campaign 
was  conducted  during  June,  191 5.  He  and  the  Trustees 
of  the  Institute  had  been  engaged  for  two  or  three  years 
in  the  effort  to  raise  the  money  to  complete  the  cost  of 
the  central  power  and  heating  plant,  but  nearly  $100,000 
of  the  $245,000  needed  had  not  been  raised.  This  burden 
bore  heavily  upon  him.  At  last,  with  the  approval  of 
the  Trustees,  he  decided  to  make  one  last  herculean  effort 
not  only  to  raise  this  huge  sum,  but  in  addition,  the  money 
necessary  to  end  the  school  year  free  of  debt.  For  this 
purpose  he  formulated  a  plan  of  campaign  by  which  five 
representatives  of  the  school  should  cover  the  chief  centres 
of  population  throughout  the  Northern  and  Middle  West- 
ern States.  This  was  the  outline  of  the  territorial  assign- 
ments of  the  collectors : 

Mr.  Chislom :  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts 
— important  centre — Boston. 

Mr.  Wood :  Rhode  Island,  New  York  east  of  Syracuse, 
and  Binghamton,  Connecticut — important  centre — New 
York  City. 

Mr.  Thomas:  New  York,  west  of  Syracuse  and  Bing- 
hamton, Pennsylvania — important  centre — Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Stevenson:  Illinois,  Wisconsin — important  centre — 
Chicago. 

Mr.  Powell:  Michigan,  Ohio — important  centres — De- 
troit and  Cleveland. 

251 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Each  representative  carried  letters  of  introduction  to 
leading  men  and  women  in  the  various  centres  through- 
out his  territory.  All  these  letters  were  personally  signed 
by  Mr.  Washington.  At  the  close  of  each  day  each 
collector  telegraphed  Mr.  Washington  at  Tuskegee  giving 
the  amount  of  subscriptions  and  pledges  he  had  secured 
that  day.  The  next  morning  Mr.  Washington  wired  each 
collector,  stating  the  total  amount  of  gifts  and  pledges 
secured  by  all  five  collectors.  When  the  Trustees  met 
in  New  York  City,  on  the  last  Thursday  of  June,  191 5, 
all  but  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  of  the  over  #245,000 
had  been  raised. 

The  Trustees  themselves  made  up  the  difference  by 
increasing  by  this  amount  their  own  subscriptions.  Thus 
was  successfully  concluded  the  last  great  and  difficult 
task  which  Booker  Washington  was  to  be  permitted  to 
perform. 

Of  the  hundreds  of  invitations  to  speak  here,  there,  and 
everywhere  which  kept  pouring  in  upon  him  certain  ones 
he  definitely  accepted  because  of  the  money-raising  oppor- 
tunities either  direct  or  indirect  which  they  offered;  others 
of  less  promise  he  tentatively  accepted  to  fall  back  upon 
in  case  the  more  desirable  ones  for  any  reason  miscarried. 
Chautauqua  engagements  he  considered  only  where  they 
provided  an  opportunity  for  direct  appeal  for  contri- 
butions for  the  work,  or  at  least  the  chance  to  distribute 
printed  matter.  Chautauqua  bureaus  offering  him  as 
much  as  half  the  gate  receipts  above  #500  in  addition  to  a 
guarantee  of  #300  a  night  he  turned  down  out  of  hand  if 
252 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

they  did  not  include  one  or  both  of  these  opportunities. 
No  matter  how  much  money  they  offered  he  would  never 
accept  such  propositions  unless  they  carried  with  them 
some  opportunity  to  make  a  direct  appeal  for  his  work. 
It  was  sometimes  suggested  to  him  that  he  might  receive 
these  fees  personally  and  then  turn  them  over  to  the 
school.  This  he  declined  to  do  because  he  was  unwilling 
to  give  even  the  appearance  of  capitalizing  his  reputation 
and  oratorical  gifts  for  his  personal  enrichment.  Booker 
Washington  was  not  one  of  those  simple-hearted  in- 
dividuals who  are  guided  solely  by  what  they  deem  in- 
herently right.  He  always  strove  to  avoid  the  appear- 
ance of  evil  as  well  as  the  evil  itself;  and,  with  one  unhappy 
exception,  he  always  succeeded.  He  fully  realized  that 
his  conduct  was  under  constant  scrutiny  by  enemies 
in  both  races  eager  to  find  some  pretext  to  drag  him  down. 
So  circumspect  was  he  in  his  behavior  that  once  only 
between  the  time  he  became  a  national  character  in  1895 
until  his  death  twenty  years  later  did  his  critics  succeed 
in  distorting  any  deed  of  his  into  the  semblance  of  mis- 
conduct. The  very  nature  of  the  charge  in  this  one  in- 
stance was  sufficient  refutation  for  any  person  acquainted 
in  even  the  slightest  degree  with  the  man's  life,  work, 
or  character. 

The  press  as  well  as  the  platform  he  constantly  used 
to  keep  his  work  before  the  public  for  money-raising  pur- 
poses. He  had  as  good  a  "nose  for  a  story"  as  the  best  of 
reporters,  and  every  story  that  came  his  way  was  sure  to 
find  its  way  into  print.     No  matter  how  driven  with 

253 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

pressing  matters  nor  how  tired  he  never  denied  himself  to 
"the  newspaper  boys."  He  believed  that  the  more 
prominence,  the  more  "limelight,"  he  could  secure  the 
better,  provided  he  used  it  for  the  promotion  of  his  work. 
Thus  he  presented  the  apparent  anomaly  of  being  at  the 
same  time  one  of  the  most  modest  and  unassuming  of  men 
and  also  one  of  the  greatest  advertisers  of  his  day. 

As  well  as  the  general  press  of  both  races  he  constantly 
used  the  school  press  for  money-raising  purposes.  The 
school  paper  which  circulates  among  donors  and  pros- 
pective donors  as  well  as  among  the  students,  teachers, 
and  graduates  carries  in  each  issue  brief  statements  of 
some  immediate  and  pressing  needs  and  the  money  re- 
quired to  satisfy  them.  These  needs  are  set  forth  in  the 
following  manner: 

"what  $1,700  will  do" 


tt 


For  a  long  while  an  important  part  of  our  extension 
work  and  publicity  work  has  been  greatly  hindered  and 
hampered  because  of  the  lack  of  a  new  and  up-to-date 
printing  press. 

"One  thousand  and  seven  hundred  dollars  will  supply 
us  with  this  long-felt  need  and  greatly  add  to  the  value 
and  influence  of  our  work." 

"WHAT   $3,000   WILL   DO" 

"One  of  our  very  greatest  and  most  practical  needs  is  a 
well  but  simply  equipped  Canning  Factory.  Three 
thousand  dollars  would  help  us  to  properly  equip  the 
Canning  Factory  we  already  have  at  Tuskegee.  The 
factory  will  help  not  only  in  preserving  large  quantities 

254 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

of  vegetables,  fruits,  berries,  etc.,  during  the  summer, 
but  at  the  same  time  could  be  used  as  a  means  of  teaching 
large  numbers  of  our  girls  a  useful  industry,  and,  more 
than  that,  the  products  could  be  used  to  sustain  the  in- 
stitution during  the  winter  months. 

"We  could  not  only  use  everything  that  might  be  put 
up  in  cans  here  at  the  school  in  feeding  the  students  and 
teachers,  but  there  is  an  increasing  demand  among  the 
merchants  of  the  South,  in  the  large  cities,  for  anything 
we  can  produce  on  the  school  grounds. 

"We  very  much  wish  that  some  friend  might  see  his 
way  clear  to  give  #3,000  with  which  to  properly  equip 
this  factory." 

The  need  for  a  new  laundry  building  with  equipment, 
a  foundry,  and  a  veterinary  hospital  were  similarly  pre- 
sented. The  funds  to  meet  each  of  these  needs  were  re- 
ceived as  a  result  of  these  appeals,  and  a  new  list  of  needs 
is  now  being  advertised. 

In  concluding  his  annual  report  each  year  Mr.  Wash- 
ington would  summarize  the  immediate  needs  of  the 
institution.     In  his  last  report  he  thus  stated  them: 

1.  $50  a  year  for  annual  scholarships  for  tuition  for 
one  student,  the  student  himself  providing  for  his  own 
board  and  other  personal  expenses  in  labor  and  cash. 

2.  #1,200  for  permanent  scholarships. 

3.  Money  for  operating  expenses  in  any  amounts, 
however  small. 

4.  #2,000  each  for  four  teachers'  cottages. 

5.  #40,000  for  a  building  for  religious  purposes. 

6.  #16,000  to  complete  the  Boys'  Trades  Building. 

7.  #50,000  for  a  Boys'  Dormitory. 

255 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

8.  $50,000  for  a  Girls'  Dormitory. 

9.  An  addition  to  our  Endowment  Fund  of  at  least 
$3,000,000. 

A  few  months  later,  as  he  lay  dying  in  a  New  York 
hospital,  the  following  letter  was  received  for  him  at 
Tuskegee.  It  was  at  once  forwarded  and  passed  him  on 
his  last  journey  to  his  home  in  the  South.  He  never  saw 
it.  The  donor,  a  Northern  friend  who  withholds  his  name, 
has  renewed  the  offer  to  the  Trustees  and  they  have  ac- 
cepted it, 

November  8,  191 5. 
Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama. 
Dear  Mr.  Washington:  I  have  read  your  annual 
report  and  also  your  treasurer's  report,  and  make  you  the 
following  proposition :  If  you  will  raise  enough  money  to 
pay  all  of  your  debts  up  to  May  1,  1916,  and  add  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  your  endowment 
fund,  I  will  give  you  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  your  building  fund,  to  be  used  in 
building  the  items  such  as  Nos.  4,  6,  7,  8,  and  the  "  Barnes, 
etc.,"  mentioned  under  the  head  of  "Special  Needs,"  and 
for  objects  of  similar  character.  The  above  does  not 
include  item  No.  5,  "Building  for  religious  purposes," 
as  I  am  not  interested  in  that  sort  of  work.  I  shall  be 
glad  to  know  whether  this  proposition  interests  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 


e 


The  interest  of  this  giver  was  first  aroused  by  his  reading 
Up  from  Slavery"  when  it  appeared  in  book  form  in 

1 901.     As  soon  as  he  had  read  the  book  he  sent  Dr.  Wash- 

256 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

ington  a  check  for  #10,000  for  his  work  which  he  has  re- 
newed each  year  since  until  he  made  the  above  offer. 
"Up  from  Slavery"  has  brought  more  money  to  Tuskegee 
than  all  the  other  books,  articles,  speeches,  and  circulars 
written  by  Mr.  Washington  himself  and  the  many  others 
who  have  written  or  spoken  about  him  and  his  work. 
Among  its  larger  immediate  results,  aside  from  awaken- 
ing the  interest  of  the  anonymous  giver  already  men- 
tioned, was  its  similar  effect  upon  the  late  H.  H.  Rogers, 
Vice-President  and  active  head  at  the  time  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company,  and  upon  Andrew  Carnegie.  Mr.  Rogers 
became  so  much  interested  that  he  not  only  gave  large 
sums  for  the  general  needs  of  Tuskegee  but  eventually 
financed  a  large  part  of  the  rural  school  extension  work, 
which  has  been  described  in  earlier  chapters,  and  which 
is  now  so  important  a  part  of  the  school's  activities. 
Under  Booker  Washington's  inspiration  and  guidance, 
too,  Mr.  Rogers  later  combined  railroad  building  with 
race  building.  In  building  his  Virginia  railroad  he  under- 
took a  wide-reaching  work  in  agricultural  education  among 
the  Negro  farmers  living  within  carting  distance  of  his 
road.  Booker  Washington  had  demonstrated  to  his 
satisfaction  that  by  increasing  at  the  same  time  their 
wants  and  their  ability  to  gratify  their  wants  he  would  be 
building  up  business  for  his  railroad. 

Shortly  after  the  publication  in  1901  of  "Up  from 
Slavery,"  Frank  N.  Doubleday,  of  Doubleday,  Page  & 
Co.,  the  publishers  of  the  book,  in  playing  golf  with  Mr. 
Carnegie  mentioned   Booker  Washington  and  told  him 

257 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

something  of  his  life.  Mr.  Carnegie  was  interested  and 
wanted  to  know  more.  Mr.  Doubleday  gave  him  a  copy 
of  "Up  from  Slavery."  After  reading  the  book  he  im- 
mediately got  into  communication  with  the  author,  told 
him  of  his  interest  in  his  life  and  work,  and  of  his  desire  to 
help  him.  The  result  was  that  Mr.  Carnegie  agreed  to 
pay  for  the  construction  and  equipment  of  a  library  to 
be  built  by  the  students.  Booker  Washington,  his 
Executive  Council,  and  the  school's  architect,  spent  hours 
and  hours  of  time  in  scrutinizing  every  detail  to  bring  the 
cost  down  to  the  smallest  possible  figure  consistent  with 
an  adequate  result.  The  final  cost  to  Mr.  Carnegie 
was  only  $15,000.  Mr.  Carnegie  was  amazed  that  so 
large,  convenient,  and  dignified  a  building  could  be  built 
at  so  small  a  cost.  Over  and  over  again  both  to 
Mr.  Washington  and  to  friends  of  the  school  he  ex- 
pressed his  surprise  and  pleasure  at  the  result  obtained 
by  this  relatively  small  expenditure.  After  that  there 
was  no  doubt  he  would  do  more  for  the  school.  It  was 
simply  a  question  of  how  much  more  and  what  form  it 
would  take.  In  1903  the  following  letter  was  received  by 
the  late  William  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  in  his  capacity  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Tuskegee  Board  of  Trustees. 

Andrew  Carnegie 
2  East  gist  Street,  New  York 

New  York,  April  17,  1913. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Baldwin:  I  have  instructed  Mr.  Franks, 
Secretary,   to   deliver  to   you   as  Trustee   of  Tuskegee 

258 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

#600,000  of  5  per  cent.  U.  S.  Steel  Company  bonds  to  com- 
plete the  Endowment  Fund  as  per  circular. 

One  condition  only — the  revenue  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  of  these  bonds  is  to  be  subject  to  Booker 
Washington's  order  to  be  used  by  him  first  for  his  wants 
and  those  of  his  family  during  his  life  or  the  life  of  his 
widow — if  any  surplus  is  left  he  can  use  it  for  Tuskegee.  I 
wish  that  great  and  good  man  to  be  free  from  pecuniary 
cares  that  he  may  devote  himself  wholly  to  his  great  Mis- 
sion. 

To  me  he  seems  one  of  the  foremost  of  living  men  be- 
cause his  work  is  unique.  The  Modern  Moses,  who  leads 
his  race  and  lifts  it  through  Education  to  even  better  and 
higher  things  than  a  land  overflowing  with  milk  and  honey 
— History  is  to  know  two  Washingtons,  one  white,  the 
other  black,  both  Fathers  of  their  people.  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  serious  race  question  of  the  South  is  to  be  solved 
wisely  only  by  following  Booker  Washington's  policy 
which  he  seems  to  have  been  specially  born — a  slave  among 
slaves — to  establish,  and  even  in  his  own  day,  greatly  to 
advance. 

So  glad  to  be  able  to  assist  this  good  work  in  which  you 
and  others  are  engaged. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)    Andrew   Carnegie. 
To  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

This  great  gift  delighted  Booker  Washington  not  only 
for  what  it  meant  directly  to  his  work,  but  because  it  so 
strikingly  illustrated  a  truth  which  he  had  long  and  in- 
sistently impressed  upon  his  staff  and  his  students: 
namely,  that  if  every  dollar  contributed  were  made  to  do 

259 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

the  work  of  two,  more  dollars  would  be  forthcoming  from 
the  same  source. 

The  two  events  upon  which  Booker  Washington's  pop- 
ular fame  chiefly  rests  are  his  speech  before  the  Cotton 
States  Exposition  in  Atlanta,  Ga.,  in  1895,  and  the  pub- 
lication of  "Up  from  Slavery"  five  years  later.  Since 
"Up  from  Slavery"  played  so  great  a  part  in  aiding  its 
author  to  secure  funds  for  his  work  it  seems  appropriate 
to  give  here  some  account  of  how  it  came  to  be  written,  how 
it  was  written,  and  how  it  was  received. 

In  the  year  1900  the  editors  of  the  Outlook  decided  to  il- 
lustrate in  the  concrete  the  opportunities  of  America  by 
getting  some  of  the  Americans  of  greatest  achievement  to 
tell  how  they  had  risen  by  their  own  efforts  from  the  very 
depths  of  untoward  circumstances.  For  this  purpose  they 
selected  Jacob  A  Riis  and  Booker  T.  Washington.  After 
much  hesitancy  on  his  part  and  urgency  on  theirs  Booker 
Washington  finally  agreed  to  write  the  story  of  his  life  for 
serial  publication  in  the  Outlook.  His  hesitancy  was  due 
merely  to  the  fact  that  he  could  not  believe  that  the  events 
of  his  life  would  be  of  any  interest  to  the  public.  So  con- 
vinced was^he  in  this  belief  that  he  had  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  starting  to  write  even  after  he  had  agreed  to  do  so. 
Finally,  after  a  particularly  urgent  letter  from  the  editors, 
he  stole  some  hours  from  his  absorbing  and  exacting  duties 
at  Tuskegee  to  write  the  first  chapter.  After  these  efforts 
had  been  typewritten  by  his  stenographer  they  produced 
only  three  and  one-half  pages — an  amount  of  copy  dis- 
couragingly  inadequate  for  the  first  installment.  He 
260 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

mailed  the  material,  however,  with  a  line  of  apology  for  its 
inadequacy  and  promising  to  send  more  the  next  day.  On 
receipt  of  this  scant  initial  copy  the  editors  wrote  him  a 
letter  of  congratulation  and  approval  which  greatly  en- 
couraged him,  in  spite  of  his  heavy  and  unrelenting  ad- 
ministrative duties,  to  push  ahead  with  new  courage. 
Notwithstanding,  however,  the  best  intentions  on  the  part 
of  the  writer  and  the  most  patiently  insistent  reminders  on 
the  part  of  the  editors  there  were  many  and  wide  gaps  in 
the  supposedly  consecutive  series  of  chapters  before  the 
story  was  finally  finished.  Much  of  the  story  he  dragged 
from  his  tired  brain,  and  jotted  down  on  odds  and  ends  of 
paper  on  trains,  while  waiting  in  railway  stations,  in  hotels, 
and  in  ten  and  fifteen  minute  intervals  snatched  from  over- 
burdened days  in  his  office.  The  fact  that  it  was  a 
physical  impossibility  to  give  adequate  time  and  attention 
to  so  important  a  piece  of  work  distressed  him  and  made 
him  feel  even  more  apologetic  about  the  product. 

The  enthusiastic  reception  of  his  story  by  the  editors  and 
later  by  the  public  was  accordingly  particularly  surprising 
and  gratifying  to  him.  After  its  serial  publication  he  was 
soon  almost  overwhelmed  with  congratulatory  letters  and 
laudatory  reviews.  Julian  Ralph  in  the  New  York  Mail 
and  Express  wrote  in  part: 

"It  does  not  matter  if  the  reader  feels  a  prejudice  against 
the  Negro,  or  if  he  be  a  Negrophile,  or  if  he  has  never 
cared  one  way  or  the  other  whether  the  Negro  does  or  does 
not  exist.  Whatever  be  his  feelings,  'Up  from  Slavery'  is 
as  remarkable  as  the  most  important  book  ever  written  by 

261 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

an  American.  That  book  is  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.' 
Booker  Washington's  story  is  its  echo  and  its  antithesis. 
'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin'  was  the  wail  of  a  fettered,  hope-for- 
saken race.  'Up  from  Slavery'  is  the  triumphant  cry  of 
the  same  race,  led  by  its  Moses  upon  a  trail  which  leads  to 
an  intelligent  use  of  the  freedom  that  came  to  it  as  an  al- 
most direct  result  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  revolutionary  novel. 
'Up  from  Slavery'  and  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin'  are  insepa- 
rably linked  in  the  history  of  our  relations  with  our  dark- 
skinned  fellow-citizen.  One  book  begins  precisely  where 
the  other  left  off." 

William  Dean  Howells  in  the  North  American  Review 
said  of  it:  "  .  .  .  What  strikes  you  first  and  last  is 
his  constant  common  sense.  He  has  lived  heroic  poetry, 
and  he  can,  therefore,  afford  to  talk  simple  prose.  . 
The  mild  might  of  his  adroit,  his  subtle  statesmanship  (in 
the  highest  sense  it  is  not  less  than  statesmanship,  and  in- 
volves a  more  Philippine  problem  in  our  midst),  is  the  only 
agency  to  which  it  can  yield.     . 

Among  the  congratulatory  letters  came  one  from  Athens, 
Greece,  signed  "Bob  Burdette,  Mrs.  Burdette,  and  the 
children"  which  greatly  amused  and  delighted  Mr.  Wash- 
ington. It  reads,  paraphrasing  the  passage  in  the  book 
where  he  tells  of  the  insistent  stranger  who  unerringly  seeks 
him  out  when  he  tries  to  get  a  little  quiet  and  rest  on  a 
train,  "'Is  not  this  Booker  T.  Washington?  We  wish  to 
introduce  ourselves.'  You  see,  you  can't  escape  it.  We 
read  that  sentence,  and  shouted  with  delight  over  it,  in 
Damascus.  I  was  going  to  writer — 'far-away  Damascus' 
262 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

— but  no  place  is  far  away  now.  Damascus  is  very  near  to 
Tuskegee,  in  fact,  only  six  or  seven  thousand  years  older, 
and  not  more  than  fifty  thousand  years  behind.  It  must 
have  had  a  good  start,  too,  for  Abraham  went  there  or  sent 
there  to  get  that  wise  and  tactful  'steward  of  his  house,' 
Eliezir.  But  Damascus  has  always  remained  in  the  same 
place,  whereas  Tuskegee  has  been  marching  on  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  But  you  are  a  busy  man — we  have  heard 
that,  even  in  this  land.  And  I  can  see  you  reading  this 
letter  five  lines  at  a  time.  No  use  sitting  next  the  window, 
piling  your  hand-baggage  up  in  the  seat,  and  pulling  your 
hat  over  your  eyes,  is  there?  No,  for  we  come  along  just 
the  same,  sit  on  the  arm  of  the  seat,  touch  your  elbow,  and 
— 'Is  not  this  Booker  T.  Washington?'  We  have  been 
travelling  for  a  year.  The  Outlook  has  followed  us  week 
by  week.  And  week  by  week  we  have  reached  out  to  clasp 
your  hand,  and  have  knelt  to  thank  God  for  the  story  of 
your  life — for  its  inspiration,  its  hopefulness,  its  trust,  its 
fidelity  to  duty  and  purpose.  Such  a  wonderful  story, 
told  in  the  elegance  of  simplicity  that  only  a  great  heart 
can  feel  and  write.  We  paused  again  and  again  to  say 
'God  bless  him.'  And  now  we  send  you  our  hand  clasp 
and  message — 'God  bless  him  and  all  of  his/  There,  now! 
You  may  pile  up  your  baggage  a  little  higher — pull  your 
hat  down  over  your  eyes  a  little  farther — and  pretend  to 
sleep  a  little  harder.  We  will  leave  you.  But  not  in 
peace.  More  likely  in  pieces.  For  I  see  other  people, 
crowding  in  from  the  other  car,  with  their  glittering  eyes 
gimleted  upon  you." 

263 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Barret  Wendell,  Professor  of  English  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, wrote  him:  "Will  you  allow  me  to  express  the 
pleasure  which  your  book,  'Up  from  Slavery,'  has  given 
me?  For  about  twenty  years  a  teacher  of  English,  and 
mostly  of  English  composition,  I  have  become  perhaps  a 
judge  as  to  matters  of  style.  Certainly  I  have  grown  less 
and  less  patient  of  all  writing  which  is  not  simple  and 
efficient;  and  more  and  more  to  believe  in  a  style  which  does 
its  work  with  a  simple,  manly  distinctness.  It  is  hard 
to  remember  when  a  book,'  casually  taken  up,  has  proved, 
in  this  respect,  so  satisfactory  as  yours.  No  style  could  be 
more  simple,  more  unobtrusive;  yet  few  styles  which  I 
know  seem  to  me  more  laden — as  distinguished  from 
overburdened — with  meaning.  On  almost  any  of  your 
pages  you  say  as  much  again  as  most  men  would  say  in 
the  space;  yet  you  say  it  as  simply  and  easily  that  one 
has  no  effort  in  reading.  One  is  simply  surprised  at  the 
quiet  power  which  can  so  make  words  do  their  work." 

Thus  was  received  the  simple  narrative  of  his  life  up  to 
this  time  as  hastily  written  down  in  odd  moments  snatched 
from  his  already  overcrowded  days.  In  this  country 
alone  more  than  110,000  copies  of  the  book  have  since 
been  sold.  It  has  been  translated  into  French,  Spanish, 
German,  Hindustani,  and  Braille. 

Booker  Washington's  philosophy  as  to  money  raising 
after  a  generation  of  constant  and  successful  experience 
was  summed  up  in  this  statement  which  he  made  in  "Up 
from  Slavery":  "My  experience  in  getting  money  for 
Tuskegee  has  taught  me  to  have  no  patience  with  those 
264 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

people  who  are  always  condemning  the  rich  because  they 
are  rich,  because  they  do  not  give  more  to  objects  of 
charity.  In  the  first  place,  those  who  are  guilty  of  such 
sweeping  criticisms  do  not  know  how  many  people  would 
be  made  poor,  and  how  much  suffering  would  result,  if 
wealthy  people  were  to  part  all  at  once  with  any  large 
proportion  of  their  wealth  in  a  way  to  disorganize  and 
cripple  great  business  enterprises.  Then  very  few  people 
have  any  idea  of  the  large  number  of  applications  for  help 
that  rich  people  are  constantly  being  flooded  with.  I 
know  wealthy  people  who  receive  as  many  as  twenty  calls 
a  day  for  help.  More  than  once,  when  I  have  gone  into 
offices  of  rich  men,  I  have  found  half  a  dozen  persons  wait- 
ing to  see  them,  and  all  come  for  the  same  purpose,  that 
of  securing  money.  And  all  these  calls  in  person,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  applications  received  through  the  mails. 
Very  few  people  have  any  idea  of  the  amount  of  money 
given  away  by  persons  who  never  permit  their  names  to 
be  known.  I  have  often  heard  persons  condemned  for 
not  giving  away  money,  who,  to  my  own  knowledge,  were 
giving  away  thousands  of  dollars  every  year  so  quietly 
that  the  world  knew  nothing  about  it.  .  .  .  Although 
it  has  been  my  privilege  to  be  the  medium  through  which  a 
good  many  hundred  thousand  dollars  have  been  received 
for  the  work  at  Tuskegee,  I  have  always  avoided  what  the 
world  calls  'begging.'  My  experience  and  observation 
have  convinced  me  that  persistent  asking  outright  for 
money  from  the  rich  does  not,  as  a  rule,  secure  help.  I 
have  usually  proceeded  on  the  principle  that  persons  who 

265 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

possess  sense  enough  to  earn  money  have  sense  enough  to 
know  how  to  give  it  away,  and  that  the  mere  making 
known  of  the  facts  regarding  the  work  of  the  graduates 
has  been  more  effective  than  outright  begging.  I  think 
that  the  presentation  of  facts,  on  a  high,  dignified  plane, 
is  all  the  begging  that  most  rich  people  care  for." 

Although  this  favorable  estimate  of  the  money-giving 
rich  was  based  upon  many  years  of  successful  experience 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  Booker  Washington  did  not 
have  his  share  of  rebuffs  and  discouragements.  In  fact, 
scarcely  a  day  went  by  that  he  did  not  receive  some  such 
disheartening  rebuff  as  the  following  note  from  a  man  who 
had  for  several  years  contributed  a  small  sum  each  year  to 
Tuskegee  Institute: 

-,  May  10,  191 3. 


Mr.  Warren  Logan,  Treasurer,  Tuskegee  Institute,  Tuskegee, 

Ala. 

Dear  Sir:  I  enclose  my  check  for  ten  dollars  in  reply 
to  President  Washington's  appeal  of  the  6th  inst. 

I  do  not  understand  why  such  an  appeal  should  be 
necessary  after  the  large  gifts  by  Mr.  Kennedy  and  others. 
The  Indians  have  received  much  less  than  the  Negroes  in 
money  and  care,  yet  they  beg  less,  and  are  more  ready  to 
imitate  the  whites  in  being  self-reliant.  All  over  the 
North  I  find  the  Negroes  despised  by  the  whites  for  their 
laziness  and  disposition  to  be  dependent. 

Very  truly, 


Mr.  Washington's  patient,  circumstantial,  and  construc- 
tively informative  reply  is  characteristic  of  his  method  of 
266 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

rejoinder.  It  also  illustrates  his  habit  of  placing  his  re- 
liance on  facts  and  not  on  adjectives,  and  of  so  marshalling 
his  facts  that  they  fought  his  battles  for  him.  He  replied 
thus: 

Tuskegee  Institute,    Alabama, 

May  26,  1913. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Our  Treasurer  has  shown  me  your  letter 
of  May  10th,  in  which  you  inquire  as  to  why  it  should  be 
necessary  for  Tuskegee  to  appeal  to  the  public  for  addi- 
tional funds,  also  stating  that  the  Indians  receive  much 
less  than  Negroes  in  money  and  care. 

Under  the  circumstances,  I  thought  you  would  not  ob- 
ject to  my  making  the  following  report  to  you,  covering 
the  inquiries  suggested  in  your  letter. 

The  Indians  from  a  financial  standpoint  are  better  off 
than  any  other  race  or  class  of  people  in  this  country. 
The  265,863  Indians  in  the  United  States  own  72,535,862 
acres  of  land,  which  is  273  acres  for  each  Indian  man, 
woman,  and  child.  If  all  the  land  in  the  country  were 
apportioned  among  the  inhabitants  there  would  be  20 
acres  per  person.  The  value  of  property  and  funds 
belonging  to  Indians  is  #678,564,253,  or  #2,554  Per  capita, 
or  about  $10,000  per  family.  The  Negroes,  but  lately 
emancipated,  are  by  contrast  poor  and  are  struggling  to 
rise. 

The  Indians  are  carefully  looked  after  by  the  United 
States  Government.  In  addition  to  the  elaborately  or- 
ganized Indian  Bureau  at  Washington,  there  are  six 
thousand  (6,000)  persons  in  the  Indian  field  service,  to 
especially  look  after  and  supervise  them.  There  is  one 
director,  supervisor,  or  teacher  for  each  44  Indians. 

Some  of  the  things  that  the  Government  does  for  the 
Indians  are: 

267 


BCJKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

(i)  Look  after  the  health  of  the  Indians;  for  this  pur- 
pose there  are  in  the  field  one  Medical  Supervisor,  ioo 
regular  and  60  contract  physicians,  54  nurses,  and  88  field 
matrons. 

(2)  Supervise  their  farming  and  stock  raising.  For 
the  24,489  Indians  engaged  in  farming  there  are  two  gen- 
eral supervisors,  48  expert  farmers,  that  is,  men  with  ex- 
perience and  scientific  knowledge,  and  210  men  in  subor- 
dinate farming  positions. 

Over  $7,000,000  have  been  spent  in  irrigating  lands  for 
Indians.  Congress  in  191 1  appropriated  $1,300,000  for 
this  purpose.  For  the  890,000  Negro  farmers  in  the  South, 
the  United  States  Government  maintains  34  Agricultural 
Demonstration  Agents. 

For  the  supervision  of  the  44,985  Indians  engaged  in 
stock  raising,  the  Government  maintains  22  superintend- 
ents of  live  stock.  For  the  700,000  Negro  farmers  engaged 
in  live  stock  raising  there  is  only  one  Government  expert 
working  especially  among  them. 

(3)  A  system  of  schools  is  maintained  by  the  Govern- 
ment for  Indian  children.  For  this  purpose  there  are 
223  day  schools,  79  reservation  boarding  schools,  and  35 
boarding  schools  away  from  reservations.  In  these 
schools  in  191 1  there  were  24,500  pupils.  For  the  sup- 
port of  these  schools  the  United  States  Government  for 
1912  appropriated  $3,757,495-  To  assist  in  teaching  the 
1,700,000  Negro  children  in  the  South  there  was  received 
in  191 1  from  the  United  States  Government  $245,518. 

In  general  the  Indians  are  not  taxed  for  any  purpose. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Negroes  are  taxed  the  same  as 
other  persons  and  in  this  way  contribute  a  considerable 
amount  for  their  own  education  and  the  education  of  the 
whites.  In  this  connection,  I  call  your  attention  to  the 
enclosed  pamphlet  "Public  Taxation  and  Negro  Schools." 

268 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

I  enclose  herewith  copy  of  my  Last  Annual  Report, 
giving  information  as  to  the  various  activities  of  the 
Institution. 

Yours  very  truly, 
[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington. 

On  October  25,  191 5,  a  few  weeks  before  he  died,  Mr. 
Washington  delivered  an  address  before  the  delegates  to 
the  National  Council  of  Congregational  Churches,  in 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  in  which  he  well  illustrated  his  belief 
already  quoted,  "that  a  large  part  of  the  mission  of  both 
Hampton  and  Tuskegee  is  to  keep  the  cause  of  Negro 
education  before  the  country."     He  said  in  part: 

"There  is  sometimes  much  talk  about  the  inferiority 
of  the  Negro.  In  practice,  however,  the  idea  appears 
to  be  that  he  is  a  sort  of  super-man.  He  is  expected  with 
about  one-fifth  or  one-tenth  of  what  the  whites  receive 
for  their  education  to  make  as  much  progress  as  they  are 
making.  Taking  the  Southern  States  as  a  whole,  about 
#10.23  Per  capita  is  spent  in  educating  the  average  white 
boy  or  girl,  and  the  sum  of  #2.82  per  capita  in  educating 
the  average  black  child. 

"In  order  to  furnish  the  Negro  with  educational  facili- 
ties so  that  the  2,000,000  children  of  school  age  now  out  of 
school  and  the  1,000,000  who  are  unable  to  read  or  write 
can  have  the  proper  chance  in  life  it  will  be  necessary 
to  increase  the  $9,000,000  now  being  expended  annually 
for  Negro  public  school  education  in  the  South  to  about 
#25,000,000  or  #30,000,000  annually." 

And  in  conclusion  he  said:  "At  the  present  rate,  it  is 

269 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

taking  not  a  few  days  or  a  few  years,  but  a  century  or 
more  to  get  Negro  education  on  a  plane  at  all  similar  to 
that  on  which  the  education  of  the  whites  now  is.  To 
bring  Negro  education  up  where  it  ought  to  be  will  take 
the  combined  and  increased  efforts  of  all  the  agencies  now 
engaged  in  this  work.  The  North,  the  South,  the  religious 
associations,  the  educational  boards,  white  people  and 
black  people,  all  will  have  to  cooperate  in  a  great  effort 
for  this  common  end." 

These  were  the  last  words  he  ever  spoke  at  a  great 
public  meeting.  They  show  his  acute  realization  of  the 
immensity  of  the  task  to  which  he  literally  gave  his  life, 
and  his  dread  lest  what  had  been  accomplished  be  over- 
estimated with  a  consequent  slackening  of  effort. 

A  very  cordial  friendship  existed  between  Mr.  Wash- 
ington and  his  Trustees.  Every  man  among  them  was  his 
selection  and  joined  the  Board  on  his  invitation.  In  the 
year  191 2  they  manifested  their  friendship  and  interest 
in  the  most  practical  of  ways  by  volunteering  to  raise  a 
guarantee  fund  of  $50,000  a  year  for  five  years  to  help 
bridge  the  ever-widening  gap  between  the  income  of  the 
school  and  its  unavoidably  mounting  expenses.  To  do 
this,  aside  from  contributing  handsomely  themselves, 
almost  all  went  out  and  "begged"  of  their  friends.  Mr. 
Julius  Rosenwald  of  Chicago,  for  instance,  after  making 
his  own  liberal  personal  contribution,  and  soliciting  funds 
among  his  Chicago  friends,  left  his  great  and  absorbing 
interests  at  a  busy  time  of  the  year  to  go  to  New  York 
and  devote  a  week's  time  to  "begging"  money  for  Tus- 
270 


RAISING  HUNDREDS  OF  THOUSANDS 

kegee  among  his  friends  and  acquaintances.  Messrs. 
Low,  Willcox,  Trumbull,  Mason,  and  others  also  per- 
sonally solicited  funds.  Many  men  have  gotten  million- 
aires to  give  large  sums  of  money,  but  how  many  men 
have  ever  gotten  millionaires  both  to  give  large  sums 
and  personally  to  solicit  large  sums  for  a  purely  unselfish 
purpose  ? 

In  his  final  report  Booker  Washington  said  of  this 
guarantee  fund:  "It  is  not  possible  to  describe  in  words 
what  a  relief  and  help  this  #50,000  guarantee  fund  has 
proven  during  the  four  years  it  has  been  in  existence. 
.  .  .  We  shall  have  to  begin  now  to  consider  some 
method  of  replacing  these  donations.  The  relief  which 
has  come  to  us  because  of  this  guarantee  fund  has  been 
marked  and  far  reaching." 

The  same  qualities  which  enabled  Booker  Washington 
to  get  close  to  the  plain  people  helped  him  to  win  the 
confidence  of  the  great  givers.  Through  his  money- 
raising  efforts  he  constantly  added  to  his  great  stock  of 
knowledge  of  human  nature.  Also  the  same  qualities 
of  heart  and  mind  which  enabled  him  to  rise  superior  to 
the  obstacles  of  race  prejudice  helped  him  to  bear  without 
discouragement  or  bitterness  the  many  rebuffs  of  the 
money  raiser.  One  cannot  help  speculating,  however, 
on  the  loss  to  Tuskegee,  to  the  Negro  race,  and  to  the 
general  welfare,  entailed  by  the  necessity  of  his  devoting 
two-thirds  of  his  time,  strength,  and  resourcefulness  merely 
to  the  raising  of  money. 


271 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

MANAGING    A    GREAT    INSTITUTION 

BOOKER  WASHINGTON'S  chief  characteristic  as  an 
administrator  was  his  faculty  for  attention  to  minute 
details  without  losing  sight  of  his  large  purposes  and 
ultimate  ends.  His  grasp  of  every  detail  seems  more 
remarkable  when  one  realizes  the  dimensions  of  his 
administrative  task.  Besides  leading  his  race  in  Amer- 
ica, and  to  some  extent  throughout  the  world,  and  raising 
between  one  hundred  thousand  and  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  each  year,  he  administered  an  institution 
whose  property  and  endowment  are  valued  at  almost 
four  million  dollars.  Although  the  original  property  of 
the  school  was  only  a  hundred  acres  of  land  with  three 
small  buildings,  it  now  owns  twenty-four  hundred  acres, 
with  one  hundred  and  eleven  buildings,  large  and  small, 
in  its  immediate  vicinity.  In  addition  to  these  twenty- 
four  hundred  acres  of  land  the  school  now  owns  also  about 
twenty  thousand  acres,  being  the  unsold  balance  of  a 
grant  of  twenty-five  thousand  acres  of  mineral  land,  made 
by  the  Federal  Government  as  an  endowment  to  the 
Institute  in  1899. 

The  organization  of  the  Institute  ramifies  throughout 
the  entire  county  in  which  it  is  located.  It  has  a  resident 
272 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

student  population  of  between  fifteen  hundred  and  two 
thousand  boys  and  girls,  with  a  teaching  force  of  about 
two  hundred  men  and  women.  It  enrolls  in  its  courses 
throughout  the  year  from  thirty-five  hundred  to  four 
thousand  persons.  The  receipts  of  its  post  office  exceed 
those  of  the  entire  postal  service  of  the  Negro  Republic  of 
Liberia  in  Africa.  In  a  given  year  the  revenues  of  Liberia 
were  $301,238  and  the  expenditures  $3 14,000.  In  the  same 
year  the  receipts  from  all  sources  of  Tuskegee  Institute 
were  $321,864.87  and  its  expenditures  $341,141.58. 

Booker  Washington  so  organized  this  great  institution 
that  it  ran  smoothly  and  without  apparent  loss  of  mo- 
mentum for  the  nine  months  out  of  the  twelve,  during  the 
greater  part  of  which  he  was  obliged  to  be  absent  raising 
the  funds  with  which  to  keep  it  going.  The  Institute  is  in 
continuous  session  throughout  the  twelve  months  of  the 
year.  During  the  summer  months  a  summer  school  for 
teachers  is  conducted  in  place  of  the  academic  depart- 
ment. For  the  purposes  of  this  summer  school  all  or 
most  of  the  trades  and  industries  are  kept  in  operation. 

The  school  is  organized  on  this  basis.  There  is,  first, 
a  Board  of  Trustees  which  holds  the  property  in  trust  and 
advises  the  principal  as  to  general  policies,  etc.,  and  aids 
him  in  the  raising  of  funds;  second,  the  principal,  who  has 
sole  charge  of  all  administrative  matters;  third,  an  execu- 
tive council,  composed  of  the  heads  of  departments, 
with  the  principal  as  its  chairman.  The  following  officers 
serve  as  members  of  this  executive  council:  Principal, 
treasurer,    secretary,    general    superintendent    of   indus- 

273 


BOOKER  TV  WASHINGTON 

tries,  director  mechanical  industries,  director  department 
of  research  and  Experiment  Station,  commandant, 
business  agent,  chief  accountant,  director  agricultural 
department,  registrar,  medical  director,  dean  women's 
i  department,  director  women's  industries,  chaplain,  direc- 
tor extension  department,  superintendent  buildings  and 
grounds,  dean  Phelps  Hall  Bible  Training  School,  director 
academic  department. 

The  position  of  general  superintendent  of  industries  is 
held  by  John  H.  Washington,  brother  of  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington. Mrs.  Booker  T.  Washington  fills  the  position  of 
director  women's  industries. 

After  this  executive  council  comes  the  faculty  made 
up  of  the  leading  teachers  who  have  charge  of  the  instruc- 
tion in  the  various  divisions  of  the  agricultural,  industrial, 
and  academic  departments.  This  faculty  Mr.  Washing- 
ton in  turn  subdivided  into  a  series  of  standing  and  special 
committees  having  particular  charge  of  certain  phases  of 
the  work  such  as  repairs,  cleanliness,  etc.  The  committee 
on  cleanliness  would,  for  instance,  be  expected  to  see  that 
the  boarding  department  was  insisting  upon  the  proper 
use  of  knives  and  forks  and  napkins — was  serving  the 
food  hot  and  in  proper  dishes,  and  that  the  kitchens  were 
at  all  times  ready  for  inspection  and  models  of  cleanliness. 

In  the  same  way  he  constantly  appointed  committees 
to  go  into  the  academic  classes  and  see  that  they  were 
correlating  their  work  with  the  trade  work.  The  tend- 
ency to  backslide  is  especially  strong  in  an  institution 
which,  like  Tuskegee,  is  working  out  original  problems. 
274 


Some  of  Mr.  Washington's  humble  friends     (See  page  Ij6) 


Soil  analysis.     The  students  are  required  to  work  out  in  the  laboratory 
the  problems  of  the  field  and  the  shop 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

It  is  fatally  easy  for  the  teachers  in  both  academic  and 
industrial  classes  to  slip  away  from  the  correlative  method, 
for  which  the  institution  stands,  back  to  the  traditional 
routine.  The  correlative  method  requires  constant 
thought.  As  Mr.  Washington  well  knew,  the  average 
person  only  thinks  under  constant  prodding.  Hence, 
the  committees  to  do  the  prodding!  It  is  so  much  easier 
to  take  one's  problems  from  the  text-books  than  to  dig 
them  up  in  the  shops  or  on  the  farm  as  to  be  practically 
irresistible  unless  one  is  being  watched.  Then,  in  the 
shops  it  requires  a  constant  effort  to  work  the  theory  in 
with  the  practice.  If  the  instructors  in  the  trades  tended 
to  become  mere  unthinking  mechanics  a  vigilant  com- 
mittee was  at  hand  to  keep  them  true  to  their  better  lights. 
And  if  the  committees  themselves  ever  became  slack,  the 
all-seeing  eye  of  the  principal  soon  detected  it  and  they 
in  turn  were  "jacked  up."  Mr.  Washington  himself  had 
a  way  of  leisurely  strolling  about  day  or  night  into  shop, 
classroom,  or  laboratory  with  a  stenographer  at  his  elbow. 
If  he  thus  came  upon  a  recitation  in  which  no  illustrative 
material  was  used,  that  teacher  would  receive  within  the 
next  few  hours  a  note  such  as  this : 

December  8,  1914. 

Mr.  :    After  a  visit  to  your  class  yesterday,  I 

want  to  make  this  suggestion — that  you  get  into  close 
contact  with  some  of  the  teachers  here  like  Mrs.  Jones  of 
the  Children's  House,  and  Mrs.  Ferguson,  Head  of  the 
Division  of  Education,  and  Mr.  Whiting  of  the  Division 
of  Mathematics,  who  understand  our  methods  of  teaching 
and  try  to  learn  our  methods. 

275 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Your  work  yesterday  was  very  far  from  satisfactory, 

not  based  upon  a  single  human  experience  or  human  activity. 
[Signed]  Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

Three  days  before  he  had  sent  the  following  note  to 
the  head  of  the  academic  department: 

Mr.  Lee,  Director  of  the  Academic  Department  : 
I  was  very  glad  to  see  the  wideawake  class  conducted 
by  Mr.  Smith  this  morning.     His  methods  are  certainly 
good. 

On  asking  questions  of  the  individual  members  of  the 
class,  I  found  that  about  half  of  the  class  did  not  know 
just  what  was  to  be  found  out  from  the  measurements. 
If  Mr.  Smith  will  go  to  the  new  Laundry  Building,  in 
case  he  has  not  done  so,  he  will  find  an  opportunity  to 
teach  the  same  lessons  in  connection  with  a  real  building. 
I  hope  you  will  make  this  suggestion  to  him.  Nothing 
takes  the  place  of  reality  wherever  we  can  get  something 
real. 

[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

Previous  to  this  he  had  written  Mr.  Lee  the  following 
letter  relative  to  the  general  problem  of  the  teaching 
efficiency  in  his  department: 

November  24,  19 14. 
Mr.  Lee>  Director  Academic  Department: 

When  you  return,  I  want  to  urge  that  you  give  careful 
but  serious  attention  to  the  following  suggestions: 

First,  I  am  convinced  that  we  must  arrange  to  give 
more  systematic  and  constant  attention  to  the  individual 
teachers  in  your  department  in  the  way  of  seeing  that  they 

276 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

follow  your  wishes  and  policy  regarding  the  dovetailing 
of  the  academic  work  into  the  industrial  work. 

I  am  quite  convinced  that  the  matter  is  taken  up  in 
rather  a  spasmodic  way;  that  is,  so  long  as  you  are  on 
hand  and  can  give  the  matter  personal  attention,  it  is 
followed,  but  when  you  cease  to  give  personal  attention 
to  it  or  are  away,  matters  go  back  to  the  old  rut,  or  nearly 
so. 

In  some  way  we  must  all  get  together  and  help  you  to 
organize  your  department  so  that  this  will  not  be  true. 

There  are  two  elements  of  weakness  in  the  academic 
work:  First,  I  very  much  fear  that  we  take  into  it  every 
year  too  many  green  teachers,  who  know  nothing  about 
your  methods.  This  pulls  the  whole  tone  of  the  academic 
work  down  before  you  can  train  them  into  your  methods. 
I  am  quite  sure  that  though  you  might  not  get  teachers 
who  have  had  so  much  book  training,  that  it  would  be 
worth  your  considering  to  employ  a  larger  number  of 
Hampton  graduates  or  Tuskegee  graduates,  who  have 
had  in  a  measure  the  methods  which  you  believe  in  in- 
stilled into  them. 

In  my  opinion,  the  time  has  come  when  you  must  con- 
sider seriously  the  getting  rid  of,  or  shifting,  some  of  your 
older  teachers.  You  have  teachers  in  your  department 
who  have  been  here  a  good  many  years,  and  experience 
proves  that  they  do  not  adapt  themselves  readily  and 
systematically  to  your  methods.  I  think  it  would  be 
far  better  for  the  school  to  find  employment  for  them 
outside  of  the  Academic  Department,  or  to  let  them 
take  some  clerical  work  in  your  department,  than  for  them 
to  occupy  positions  of  importance  and  influence,  which 
they  are  not  filling  satisfactorily  and  where  they  have  an 
influence  in  hurting  the  character  of  the  whole  teaching. 

All  these  matters  I  hope  you  will  consider  very  carefully. 

277 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

I  am  sure  that  the  time  has  come  when  definite  and  serious 
action  is  needed. 

Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

First  and  last  on  these  apparently  aimless  strolls  with  a 
stenographer  he  visited  not  only  the  classrooms  and 
shops  but  every  corner  of  the  great  institution.  He  would 
return  to  his  office  with  a  notebook  full  of  memoranda  of 
matters  to  be  followed  up  or  changed,  and  of  people  to 
be  commended  or  censured  for  their  efficient  or  inefficient 
handling  of  this,  that,  or  the  other  piece  of  work.  Once 
after  writing  a  series  of  letters  calling  attention  to  ragged 
tablecloths,  unclean  napkins,  and  uncleanliness  in  other 
forms  in  kitchens,  bakery,  and  dining-rooms  without  the 
desired  result,  he  personally  took  charge  of  the  situation, 
organized  a  squad  of  workers,  put  things  in  proper  condi- 
tion, and  then  insisted  that  they  be  kept  in  such  condition. 

His  passion  to  utilize  every  fraction  of  time  to  its  maxi- 
mum advantage  led  him  even  to  smuggle  a  stenographer 
into  the  formal  annual  exercises  of  the  Bible  Training 
School  so  that  he  might  during  the  exercises  clandestinely 
dictate  notes  for  the  head  of  the  Bible  school  as  to  those 
features  in  which  the  program  was  weak,  failed  "to  get 
across,"  did  not  hold  the  interest  of  the  people,  seemed  to 
be  over  their  heads,  or  whatever  might  be  his  diagnosis  of 
the  difficulty.  He  was  not  interested  in  the  program  for 
and  of  itself,  but  was  keenly  interested  in  its  effect  upon 
the  people.  If  it  interested  and  helped  them,  it  was  a 
good  program;  if  it  did  not,  it  was  a  poor  program  and  no 
278 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

amount  of  learning  or  technical  perfection  could  redeem  it. 
He  sometimes  reduced  his  more  scholarly  teachers  to  the 
verge  of  despair  by  his  insistence  that  there  should  be 
nothing  on  the  program  at  any  exercise  to  which  the  public 
was  invited  which  the  every-day  man  and  woman  could  not 
understand  and  appreciate. 

In  opening  the  chapter  we  mentioned  Booker  Washing- 
ton's faculty  for  giving  attention  to  apparently  trivial  de- 
tails without  losing  sight  of  his  large  policies  and  purposes. 
This  was  part  of  his  habit  of  taking  nothing  for  granted. 
He  never  assumed  that  people  would  do  or  had  done  what 
they  should  do  or  should  have  done  any  more  than  he 
assumed  they  would  not  or  had  not  done  what  they  should. 
He  neither  trusted  nor  distrusted  them.  He  kept  himself 
constantly  informed.  Every  person  employed  by  the  in- 
stitution from  the  most  important  department  heads  down 
to  the  men  who  removed  ashes  and  garbage  were  under  the 
stimulating  apprehension  that  his  eye  might  be  upon  them 
at  any  moment.  He  harassed  his  subordinates  by  contin- 
ually asking  them  if  this  or  that  matter  had  been  attended 
to.  He  would  sometimes  ask  three  different  people  to  do 
the  same  thing.  This  resulted  in  wasted  effort  on  some- 
body's part,  but  it  always  accomplished  the  result,  which 
was  all  that  interested  him.  He  took  nothing  for  granted 
himself  and  he  insisted  that  his  subordinates  take  nothing 
for  granted.  He  was  a  task  master  and  a  "driver"  but 
he  taxed  himself  more  heavily  and  drove  himself  harder 
than  he  did  any  one  else.  Like  other  strong  men,  he  had 
the  weaknesses  of  his  strength,  and  probably  his  most 

279 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

serious  weakness  was  driving  himself  and  his  subordinates 
beyond  his  and  their  strength. 

His  eye  was  daily  upon  every  part  of  the  great  machine 
which  he  had  built  up  through  an  exhaustive  system  of 
daily  reports.  These  reports  were  placed  on  his  desk  each 
morning  when  at  the  Institute  and  mailed  to  him  each 
morning  when  away.  They  showed  him  the  number  of 
students  in  the  hospital  with  the  name,  diagnosis,  and 
progress  of  each  case.  From  the  poultry  yard  came  re- 
ports giving  the  number  of  eggs  in  the  incubators,  the  num- 
ber hatched  since  the  day  before,  the  number  of  chickens 
which  had  died,  the  number  of  eggs  and  chickens  sold,  etc. 
Similarly  daily  reports  came  from  the  swine  herd,  the 
dairy  herd,  and  all  the  other  groups  of  live  stock. 

He  received  also  each  morning  a  report  from  the  savings 
department  giving  the  number  of  new  depositors,  the 
amounts  of  money  deposited  and  withdrawn,  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  bank  at  the  close  of  the  previous  day.  There 
was,  too,  a  list  of  the  requisitions  approved  by  the  Business 
Committee  the  previous  day  giving  articles,  prices,  divi- 
sions, or  departments  in  which  each  was  to  be  used  and  to- 
tals for  different  classes  of  requisitions. 

The  Boarding  Department  head  would  report  just  what 
had  been  served  the  students  at  the  three  meals  of  the  day 
before.  In  running  over  these  menus  he  would  give  a  con- 
temptuous snort  if  he  came  upon  any  instance  of  what  he 
called  "feeding  the  students  out  of  the  barrel."  By  this 
he  meant  buying  food  which  could  as  well  or  better  have 
been  raised  on  the  Institute  farms.  He  objected  to  this 
280 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

practice  not  only  because  it  was  more  expensive,  but  be- 
cause it  eliminated  the  work  of  raising,  preparing,  and 
serving  the  foods  which  he  regarded  as  a  valuable  ex- 
ercise in  civilization.  He  also  insisted  that  everything 
raised  on  the  farms  should  in  one  way  or  another  be  used 
by  the  students.  Besides  serving  to  the  students  every 
variety  of  Southern  vegetable  from  the  Institute's  exten- 
sive truck  gardens,  he  always  insisted  that  their  own  corn 
be  ground  into  meal  and  that  they  make  their  own  pre- 
serves out  of  their  own  peaches,  blackberries,  and  other 
fruits.  In  other  words,  he  made  the  community  feed  it- 
self just  as  far  as  possible.  And  this  he  did  quite  as  much 
because  of  the  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  right  living 
which  it  imparted  as  for  the  money  which  it  saved. 

The  Treasurer  also  submitted  a  daily  report  of  contri- 
butions and  other  receipts  of  the  previous  day  with  the 
name  and  address  of  each  contributor.  Mr.  Washington 
arranged  to  receive  and  look  over  these  daily  reports  even 
when  travelling.  Hence,  in  a  sense,  he  was  never  absent. 
Only  very  rarely  and  under  most  unusual  circumstances 
did  he  cut  this  means  of  daily  contact  with  the  multifold 
activities  of  the  institution. 

Although  a  task  master,  a  driver,  and  a  relentless  critic, 
he  was  just  in  his  dealings  with  his  subordinates  and  his 
students,  very  appreciative  of  kindness  or  thoughtfulness, 
and  generous  in  his  approbation  of  tasks  well  done.  Three 
of  the  younger  children  of  officers  of  the  school,  while  out 
walking  with  one  of  their  teachers,  discovered  a  fire  in  the 
woods  near  the  Institute  one  day.     After  notifying  the  men 

281 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

working  nearby,  the  children  hurried  home  and  wrote  Mr. 
Washington  a  letter  telling  him  about  the  fire.  They  had 
heard  him  warn  people  against  the  danger  of  forest  fires 
and  of  the  great  harm  they  did.  This  letter  the  three 
children  excitedly  took  to  the  Principal's  home  themselves, 
as  it  was  on  Sunday.  He  was  not  in,  but  the  first  letter  he 
dictated  on  arriving  at  his  office  the  next  morning  was  this : 

March  24,  IQ15. 
Miss  Beatrice  Taylor,  Miss  Louise  Logan,  Miss  Lenora  Scott: 
I  have  received  your  kind  and  thoughtful  letter  of 
yesterday  regarding  the  forest  fire  and  am  very  grateful  to 
you  for  the  information  which  it  contains.  It  is  very  kind 
and  thoughtful  of  you  to  write  me.  I  shall  pass  your  letter 
to  Mr.  Bridgeforth,  the  Head  of  the  Department,  and  ask 
him  to  look  after  the  matter. 

[Signed]     Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  addressed  this  letter  of 
appreciation  to  Mr.  Bridgeforth,  director  of  the  Agricul- 
tural Department,  mentioned  in  the  note  of  the  children: 

Principal's  Office, 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama 

October  4,  1915. 
Mr.  G.  R.  Bridgeforth,  Director  of  Agricultural  Department: 
I  have  been  spending  a  considerable  portion  of  each  day 
in  inspecting  the  farm,  and  I  want  to  congratulate  you  and 
all  of  your  assistants  on  account  of  the  fine  sweet  potato 
crop  which  has  been  produced.  It  is  certainly  the  finest 
crop  produced  in  the  history  of  the  school. 

282 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

You  deserve  equal  commendation,  especially  in  view  of 
the  season  you  have  had  to  contend  with,  in  connection 
with  the  fine  hay  crop,  the  pea  crop,  and  the  peanut  crop. 

I  wish  you  would  let  the  members  of  your  force  know 
how  I  feel  regarding  their  work. 

I  believe  if  the  farm  goes  on  under  present  conditions, 
that  at  the  end  of  the  year  it  will  very  much  please  the 
Trustees  to  note  the  results  accomplished  especially  so 
far  as  the  Budget  is  concerned. 

[Signed]    Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 


His  quick  mind  and  his  keen  sense  of  humor  would  some- 
times lead  him  to  make  fun  in  a  kindly  way  of  his  slower 
colleagues.  The  members  of  the  Executive  Council  and 
the  Faculty  sometimes  felt  he  treated  them  rather  too 
much  as  if  he  were  the  teacher  and  they  the  pupils.  His 
frequent  humorous  sallies  and  stories  exasperated  some  of 
the  more  serious-minded  members  of  his  staff  very  much  as 
Lincoln's  sallies  and  stories  exasperated  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  Cabinet,  particularly  Secretary  Stanton.  This 
sense  of  humor  was  undoubtedly  with  Booker  Washington 
as  with  Abraham  Lincoln  one  of  the  great  safety  valves 
without  which  he  could  not  have  carried  his  heavy  burden 
as  long  as  he  did. 

Among  other  things  he  always  insisted  that  the  human 
element  be  put  into  the  work  of  the  institution  and  kept  in 
it.  He  would  reprimand  a  subordinate  just  as  sharply  for 
failure  to  be  human  as  for  a  specific  neglect  of  duty.  He 
was  particularly  insistent  that  all  letters  to  the  parents  of 
the  students  should  be  intimate  and  friendly  rather  than 

283 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

formal  and  stereotyped.  He  believed  that  nothing  would 
more  quickly  or  more  surely  kill  the  effectiveness  of  the 
school  than  the  application  of  cut-and-dried  theories  and 
formulas  to  the  handling  of  the  students  and  their  problems. 
He  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  most  perfect  educa- 
tional machine  becomes  worthless  if  the  soul  goes  out  of  it. 

On  his  return  from  trips  he  would  write  a  personal  letter 
about  their  boy  or  girl  to  each  parent  whom  he  had  met 
while  away.  After  he  had  addressed  a  meeting  and  was 
shaking  hands  with  those  who  came  forward  to  meet  him  a 
man  would  say,  as  one  once  did,  with  embarrassed  pride, 
"I  'spec  you  know  my  boy — he's  down  to  your  school. 
He's  a  tall,  black  boy  an'  wears  a  derby  hat."  When  Mr. 
Washington  got  back  to  Tuskegee  he  sent  for  "the  tall, 
black  boy"  with  the  derby  hat  and  wrote  his  proud  father 
all  about  him. 

On  his  return  from  journeys  he  would  write  individual 
letters  not  only  to  the  parents  of  students  and  to  his  hosts 
and  hostesses,  but  to  each  and  every  person  who  had  tried 
in  any  way  to  contribute  to  the  pleasure  and  success  of  his 
trip.  On  returning  from  the  State  educational  tours 
which  we  have  described  he  would  write  personal  letters  of 
thanks  and  appreciation  not  only  to  every  member  of  the 
general  committee  on  arrangements  which  had  managed 
his  tour  throughout  the  State,  but  also  to  every  member  of 
the  local  committees  for  the  various  towns  and  cities  which 
he  visited.  He  would  also  write  such  a  letter  to  the  Gover- 
nor or  Mayor  or  whatever  public  official  or  prominent 
citizen  had  introduced  him.  Usually  on  these  tours 
284 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

school  children,  or  a  group  of  women  representing  a  local 
colored  women's  club,  would  present  him  with  flowers. 
He  would  in  such  cases  insist  that  the  name  of  each  child  or 
each  woman  in  the  group  be  secured  so  that  he  might  on  his 
return  write  to  each  one  a  personal  letter  of  thanks. 
Many  such  letters  are  now  among  the  treasured  posses- 
sions of  humble  Negro  homes  throughout  the  country. 

Recognizing  that  Tuskegee's  chief  claim  to  support  from 
the  public  must  be  found  in  the  achievements  of  her  grad- 
uates he  built  up  the  Division  of  Records  and  Research  to 
keep  in  constant  touch  with  the  graduates  and  gather  infor- 
mation about  them  and  their  work.  By  this  means  he 
could  find  out  in  detail  at  a  moment's  notice  what  most  of 
the  graduates  were  doing  and  in  terms  of  statistics  what  all 
were  doing.  Eighteen  to  twenty  of  them  are  building  up  or 
conducting  schools  on  the  model  of  Tuskegee  Institute  in 
parts  of  the  South  where  they  are  most  needed.  With  these 
he  naturally  sought  to  keep  in  particularly  close  touch. 

With  funds  provided  for  the  purpose  by  one  of  the  Tus- 
kegee Trustees,  committees  of  Tuskegee  officers  and 
teachers  are  sent  from  time  to  time  to  visit  these  schools 
established  by  Tuskegee  graduates.  They  act  as  friendly 
inspectors  and  advisers.  The  following  is  the  plan  of  re- 
port drafted  for  the  guidance  of  these  committees: 

OBSERVATIONS 

I.     Physical. 

(a)  Cleanliness  of  premises. 

(b)  Keeping  up  repairs. 

285 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

2.  Teaching. 

(a)  Methods  of  instruction. 

(b)  Books  used,  etc.,  that  is,  are  they  up  to  date. 

(c)  To  what  extent  correlation  is  being  carried  out. 

(d)  Visiting  teachers  might  give  some  definite  dem- 

onstrations in  methods,  etc. 

(e)  Special  meetings  with  the  faculty  should  be  held. 

3.  Financial. 

(a)  To  what  extent  does  the  school  keep  up  with  its 
accounts  so  that  its  receipts  and  expenditures 
can  be  easily  ascertained  ? 

4.  Community  work. 

(a)  Extension  activities  carried  on  by  the  school. 

(b)  The  efficiency  of  these  activities. 

5.  Attendance. 

(a)  Number  of  students  enrolled  on  date  of  visit. 

(b)  Number  in  attendance  on  date  of  visit. 

(c)  What  efforts  are  being  made  to  get  the  students 

to  enter  at  the  beginning  of  the  term  and  remain 
throughout  the  year  ? 

SUGGESTIONS 

1.  Before  concluding  its  visit  the  committee  should 
make,  to  proper  persons  in  the  school,  suggestions  con- 
cerning the  improving  of  the  teaching  and  of  other  things 
as  may  be  necessary. 

2.  If  committee  makes  a  second  visit,  see  to  what  extent 
the  suggestions  of  the  previous  visit  have  been  carried  out. 

REPORT 

After  each  visit  a  written  report  by  the  committee 
covering  all  of  the  above  shall  be  sent  to  Principal  Wash- 
ington. 

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MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

To  all  the  graduates  of  the  Institute  Mr.  Washington 
sent  a  circular  letter  on  the  first  of  each  year  in  which 
frequently  he  told  them  of  the  progress  that  had  been 
made  by  the  school  during  the  year  in  improvements, 
number  of  students  enrolled,  etc.,  and  asked  them  in  turn 
to  answer  a  list  of  questions  about  their  life  and  work,  or 
sometimes  in  such  letters  he  merely  wished  them  success 
and  gave  them  some  practical  advice.  The  191 3  letter 
which  follows  is  an  example  of  the  latter: 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 

January  1,  1913. 
Dear  Mr.  (or  Miss)  Blank: 

I  take  this  opportunity  to  send  you  greetings,  to  inquire . 
how  you  are  getting  along,  and  to  express  the  hope  that 
in  every  way  you  are  prospering.  If,  however,  you  are 
having  discouragements,  I  trust  that  you  are  meeting 
them  bravely.  If  you  have  difficulties,  or  are  laboring 
under  disadvantages,  use  them  as  stepping-stones  to 
success. 

I  again  call  your  attention  to  the  importance  of  keeping 
in  touch  with  the  Institute.  Keeping  your  address  on 
file  with  us  and  sending  a  report  of  your  work  will  assist 
in  doing  this.  I  enclose  herewith  a  blank  for  that  pur- 
pose. Visits  to  the  school  should  also  be  made  from  time 
to  time.  You  should  begin  to  prepare  now  to  be  here 
during  the  coming  commencement  exercises  in  May  in 
order  that  you  may  see  what  is  being  done  at  the  institu- 
tion and  to  meet  your  former  classmates.  Already  the 
officers  of  the  General  Alumni  Association  have  begun 
preparations  for  your  welcome. 

I  urge  upon  you  the  importance  of  keeping  up  the  habit 

287 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

of  study  and  of  reading  good  books  and  papers.  The  ac- 
companying circular  on  "How  to  Buy  Books"  gives  val- 
uable suggestions  about  how  to  secure  the  best  books 
cheaply.  I  take  this  occasion  to  inform  you  that  already 
we  are  making  preparations  for  our  1913  Summer  School. 
It  is  hoped  that  every  graduate  who  is  teaching  will  attend 
this  or  some  other  good  summer  school. 

I  trust  that  wherever  you  are  located  you  will  do  all  that 
you  can  for  community  uplift.  Be  active  in  church  and 
Sunday-school  work,  help  to  improve  the  public  schools, 
assist  in  bettering  health  conditions,  help  the  people  to 
secure  property,  to  buy  homes  and  to  improve  them.  In 
doing  all  these  things,  you  will  be  carrying  out  the  Tuske- 
gee  idea. 

Very  truly  yours, 
[Signed]  Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

The  questions  were  slightly  varied  from  year  to  year. 
The  following  were  those  sent  out  with  the  191 5  letter — 
the  last  to  bear  the  signature  of  the  Institute's  founder. 

Please  favor  me  by  answering  these  questions  and  returning  the 
blank  as  soon  as  you  receive  it. 

1 .  Your  full  name  when  at  Tuskegee  ? 

2.  What  year  were  you  graduated  from  Tuskegee? 

3.  Your  present  home  address? 

4.  If  you  are  not  at  home,  your  temporary  address  for  the  winter 

0^915-1916? 

5.  If  you  have  married,  your  wife's  name  before  marriage?     . 

Was  she  ever  a  student  at  Tuskegee? 

Is  she  living? 

6.  Your  present  occupation?     If  in  educational  work,  give  your 

position  in  the  school 

7.  How  long  have  you  followed  it? 

288 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

8.  What  are  your  average  wages  or  earnings  per  day,  week,  or 

month? 

9.  What  other  occupation  have  you? 

10.  Average  wages  per  day,  week,  or  month  at  this  occupation  ?  . 

11.  Kind  and  amount  of  property  owned? 

12.,   Tell  us  something  of  the  work  you  are  doing  this  year.     (We 

will  also  be  pleased  to  receive  testimonials  from  white  and 
colored  persons  concerning  your  work) 

13 .  We  especially  wish  to  get  in  touch  this  year  with  as  many  of  our 
former  students  as  possible.     Please  give  present  addresses 

and  occupations  of  all  of  these  that  you  can 

Booker  T.  Washington,  Principal. 

Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama. 

As  previously  mentioned  the  relationship  between  Mr. 
Washington  and  his  Trustees  was  at  all  times  particularly 
friendly  and  harmonious.  While  they  were  always  di- 
rectors who  directed  instead  of  mere  figureheads,  they 
nevertheless  were  broad  enough  and  wise  enough  to  give 
the  Principal  a  very  free  reign.  Preeminent  among  the 
able  and  devoted  Trustees  of  Tuskegee  was  the  late  Wil- 
liam H.  Baldwin,  Jr.  In  order  to  commemorate  his  life 
and  work  the  William  H.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  Memorial  Fund  of 
$150,000  was  raised  by  a  committee  of  distinguished  men, 
with  Oswald  Garrison  Villard  of  the  New  York  Evening 
Post  as  chairman,  among  whom  were  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
Grover  Cleveland,  and  Charles  W.  Eliot,  and  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Tuskegee  Trustees.  A  bronze  memo- 
rial tablet  in  memory  of  Mr.  Baldwin  was  at  the  same  time 
placed  on  the  Institute  grounds.  At  the  ceremony  at 
which  this  tablet  was  unveiled  and  this  fund  presented  to 
the  Trustees,  Mr.  Washington  said  in  part,  in  speaking  of 

289 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

his  relations  with  Mr.  Baldwin  and  Mr.  Baldwin's  rela- 
tions to  Tuskegee: 

"Only  those  who  are  close  to  the  business  structure  of 
the  institution  could  really  understand  what  the  coming 
into  our  work  of  a  man  like  William  H.  Baldwin  rreant 
to  all  of  us.  In  the  first  place,  it  meant  the  bringing  into 
our  work  a  certain  degree  of  order,  a  certain  system,  so  far 
as  the  business  side  of  the  institution  was  concerned,  that 
had  not  hitherto  existed.  Then  the  coming  of  him  into  our 
institution  meant  the  bringing  of  new  faith,  meant  the 
bringing  of  new  friends.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first 
impression.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first  experience  in 
meeting  Mr.  Baldwin.  At  that  time  he  was  the  General 
Manager  and  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents  of  the  Southern 
Railway,  located  then  in  its  headquarters  in  the  city  of 
Washington.  I  remember  that,  a  number  of  days  pre- 
vious, I  had  gone  to  the  city  of  Boston  and  had  asked  his 
father  if  he  would  not  give  me  a  line  of  introduction  to  his 
son,  about  whom  I  had  already  heard  in  Washington. 
Mr.  Baldwin's  father  readily  gave  me  a  line  of  introduc- 
tion and  I  went  in  a  few  days  after  that  and  sought  out  Mr. 
Baldwin  in  his  Washington  office  and  he  looked  through 
this  letter  of  introduction,  read  it  carefully,  then  he  looked 
me  over,  up  and  down,  and  I  asked  him  if  he  would  not 
become  a  trustee  of  this  institution.  After  looking  me 
over,  looking  me  up  and  down  for  a  few  seconds  or  a  few 
minutes  longer,  he  said,  'No,  I  cannot  become  a  trustee; 
I  will  not  say  I  will  become  a  trustee  because  when  I  give 
my  word  to  become  a  trustee  it  must  mean  something.' 

29° 


m    >, 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

He  said,  'I  will  study  the  institution  at  Tuskegee,  I  will 
go  there  and  look  it  over  and  after  I  have  found  out  what 
your  methods  are,  what  you  are  driving  at — if  your  meth- 
ods and  objects  commend  themselves  to  me,  then  I  will 
consent  to  become  a  trustee.'  And  I  remember  how  well 
— some  of  the  older  teachers  and  perhaps  some  of  the 
older  students  will  recall — that  upon  one  day,  when  we 
were  least  expecting  it,  he  stopped  his  private  car  off  here 
at  Chehaw  and  appeared  here  upon  our  grounds,  and 
some  of  us  will  recall  how  he  went  into  every  department 
of  the  institution,  how  he  went  into  the  classrooms,  how 
he  went  through  the  shops,  how  he  went  through  the 
farm,  how  he  went  through  the  dining-room;  I  remem- 
ber how  he  went  to  each  table,  and  took  pieces  of  bread 
from  the  table  and  broke  them  and  examined  the  bread  to 
see  how  well  it  was  cooked,  and  even  tasted  some  of  it  as 
he  went  into  the  kitchen.  He  wanted  to  be  sure  how  we 
were  doing  things  here  at  Tuskegee.  Then  after  he  had 
made  this  visit  of  examination  for  himself,  after  he  had 
studied  our  financial  condition,  then  after  a  number  of 
months  had  passed  by,  he  consented  to  permit  us  to  use 
his  name  as  one  of  our  Trustees,  and  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  we  never  had  such  a  trustee.  He  was  one 
who  devoted  himself  night  and  day,  winter  and  summer,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  to  the  interests  of  this  institution. 
Now,  having  spoken  this  word,  you  can  understand  the 
thoughts  and  the  feelings  of  some  of  us  on  this  occasion 
as  we  think  of  the  services  of  this  great  and  good  man. 
"It  is  one  of  the  privileges  of  people  who  are  not  always 

291 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

classed  among  the  popular  people  of  earth  to  have  strong 
friends  for  the  reason  that  nobody  but  a  strong  man  will 
endure  the  public  criticism  that  so  often  comes  to  one  who 
is  the  friend  of  a  weak  or  unpopular  race.  This,  in  the 
words  of  another,  is  one  of  the  advantages  enjoyed  some- 
times by  a  disadvantaged  race." 

Naturally  no  account  of  Booker  Washington's  adminis- 
tration of  the  great  institution  which  he  built  would  be 
complete  without  some  mention  of  Mrs.  Washington's 
part  in  her  husband's  work.  Aside  from  her  duties  as  wife, 
mother,  and  home  maker — duties  which  any  ordinary 
woman  would  find  quite  exacting  enough  to  absorb  all  her 
time,  thought,  and  strength  particularly  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  a  wide  hospitality  is  part  of  the  role — Mrs. 
Washington,  as  director  of  women's  industries,  is  one  of 
the  half-dozen  leading  executives  of  the  institution.  In 
addition  to  her  many  and  varied  family  and  official  duties 
at  the  Institute  Mrs.  Washington  has  always  been  a 
leader  in  social  service  and  club  work  among  the  women  of 
her  race  throughout  the  country,  and  has  besides  all  this 
come  to  be  a  kind  of  mother  confessor,  advisor,  and  guide 
to  hundreds  of  young  men  and  women.  We  will  conclude 
this  chapter  by  quoting  in  large  part  an  article  written 
by  Mr.  Scott  and  published  some  years  ago  in  the  Ladies' 
Home  Journal,  which  describes  how  and  when  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington entered  her  husband's  life  and  work  and  the  part 
she  played  in  his  affairs: 

"Even  before  the  war  closed  there  came  to  the  South 
on  the  heels  of  the  army  of  emancipation  an  army  of 
292 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

school  teachers.  They  came  to  perfect  with  the  spelling- 
book  and  the  reader  the  work  that  the  soldiers  had  begun 
with  the  sword.  It  was  during  this  period  in  the  little 
straggling  village  of  Macon,  Miss.,  that  a  little  girl, 
called  then  Margaret  Murray,  but  who  is  known  now  as 
Mrs.  Booker  T.  Washington,  was  born.  When  she  grew 
old  enough  to  count  she  found  herself  one  of  a  family  of 
ten  and,  like  nearly  all  children  of  Negro  parentage,  at 
that  time,  very  poor. 

"In  the  grand  army  of  teachers  who  went  South  in 
1864  and  1865  were  many  Quakers.  Prevented  by  the 
tenets  of  their  religion  from  entering  the  army  as  soldiers 
these  people  were  the  more  eager  to  do  the  not  less  dif- 
ficult and  often  dangerous  work  of  teachers  among  the 
freedmen  after  the  war  was  over. 

"One  of  the  first  memories  of  her  childhood  is  of  her 
father's  death.  It  was  when  she  was  seven  years  old. 
The  next  day  she  went  to  the  Quaker  school  teachers,  a 
brother  and  sister,  Sanders  by  name,  and  never  went 
back  home  to  live. 

"Thus  at  seven  she  became  the  arbiter  of  her  own  fate. 
The  incident  is  interesting  in  showing  thus  early  a  certain 
individuality  and  independence  of  character  which  she 
has  exhibited  all  through  her  life.  In  the  breaking  or 
loosening  of  the  family  relations  after  the  death  of  her 
father  she  determined  to  bestow  herself  upon  her  Quaker 
neighbors.  The  secret  c  r  it,  of  course,  was  that  the  child 
was  possessed  even  then  with  a  passion  for  knowledge 
which  has  never  since  deserted  her.     Rarely  does  a  day 

293 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

pass  that  Mrs.  Washington  amid  the  cares  of  her  house- 
hold, of  the  school,  and  of  the  many  philanthropic  and 
social  enterprises  in  which  she  takes  a  leading  part,  does 
not  devote  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  downright 
study. 

"And  so  it  was  that  Margaret  Murray  became  at  seven 
a  permanent  part  of  the  Quaker  household,  and  became 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  so  far  as  her  habits  of  thought 
and  religious  attitude  are  concerned,  herself  a  Quaker. 

"'And  in  those  early  days,'  says  Mrs.  Washington, 
laughing,  'I  learned  easily  and  quickly.  It  was  only 
after  I  grew  up  that  I  began  to  grow  dull.  I  used  to  sit 
up  late  at  night  and  get  up  early  in  the  morning  to  study 
my  lessons.  I  was  not  always  a  good  child,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  and  sometimes  I  would  hide  away  under  the  house 
in  order  to  read  and  study.'     .     .     . 

"When  Margaret  Murray  was  fourteen  years  old  the 
good  Quaker  teacher  said  one  day,  'Margaret,  would  thee 
like  to  teach?'  That  very  day  the  little  girl  borrowed  a 
long  skirt  and  went  downtown  to  the  office  of  Judge  Ames, 
and  took  her  examination.  It  was  not  a  severe  examina- 
tion. Judge  Ames  had  known  Margaret  all  her  life  and 
he  had  known  her  father,  and  in  those  days  white  people 
were  more  lenient  with  Negro  teachers  than  they  are  now. 
They  did  not  expect  so  much  of  them.  And  so,  the  next 
day,  Margaret  Murray  stepped  into  the  schoolroom 
where  she  had  been  the  day  before  a  pupil  and  became  a 
teacher. 

"Then  Margaret  heard  of  the  school  at  Nashville — 
294 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

Fisk  University — and  she  went  there.  She  had  a  little 
money  when  she  started  to  school,  and  with  that  and 
what  she  was  able  to  earn  at  the  school  and  by  teaching 
during  vacations  she  managed  to  work  her  way  as — what 
was  termed  rather  contemptuously  in  those  days — a 
'half-rater.'  It  was  not  the  fashion  at  that  time,  in  spite 
of  the  poverty  of  the  colored  people,  for  students  to  work 
their  way  through  school. 

"In  those  days  very  little  had  been  heard  at  Fisk  of 
Tuskegee,  of  Hampton,  or  of  Booker  T.  Washington. 
Students  who  expected  to  be  teachers  were  looking  for- 
ward to  going  to  Texas.  Texas  has  always  been  more 
favorable  to  Negro  education  than  other  Southern  States 
and  has  always  got  the  best  of  Negro  public  school  teachers. 

"But  upon  graduation  day,  June,  1889,  Booker  T. 
Washington  was  at  Fisk,  and  he  sat  opposite  Margaret 
Murray  at  table.  About  that  time  it  was  arranged  that 
she  should  go  to  Texas,  but,  without  knowing  just  how  it 
came  about,  she  decided  to  go  to  Tuskegee  and  become 
what  was  then  called  the  Lady  Principal  of  the  school. 
Mrs.  Washington  has  been  at  Tuskegee  ever  since. 

"Mrs.  Washington's  duties  as  the  wife  of  the  Principal 
of  the  Tuskegee  Institute  are  many  and  various.  She 
has  charge  of  all  the  industries  for  girls.  She  gives  much 
time  to  the  extension  work  of  the  school,  which  includes 
the  'Mothers'  meetings'  in  the  town  of  Tuskegee  and 
the  'plantation  settlement'  nearby.  Her  most  char- 
acteristic trait,  however,  is  a  boundless  sympathy  which 
has  made  her  a  sort  of  Mother  Confessor  to  students  and 

295 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

teachers  of  the  Institute.     All  go  to  her  for  comfort  and 
advice. 

"The  'mothers'  meetings'  grew  out  of  the  first  Tuskegee 
Negro  Conference  held  at  Tuskegee  in  February,  1892. 
Mrs.  Washington,  as  she  sat  in  the  first  meeting  of  Negro 
farmers  and  heard  what  they  had  to  say,  was  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  history  was  repeating  itself.  Here 
again,  as  in  the  early  days  of  the  woman's  suffrage  move- 
ment, women  had  no  place  worth  mentioning  in  the  im- 
portant concerns  of  life  outside  the  household.  While 
there  were  many  women  present  at  this  first  conference, 
they  did  not  seem  to  realize  that  they  had  any  interest 
in  the  practical  affairs  that  were  being  discussed  by  their 
sons  and  husbands.  While  her  husband  was  trying  to 
give  these  farmers  new  ideas,  new  hopes,  new  aspirations, 
the  thought  came  to  Mrs.  Washington  that  the  Tuskegee 
village  was  the  place  for  her  to  begin  a  work  which  should 
eventually  include  all  the  women  of  the  county  and  of  the 
neighboring  counties.  The  country  colored  women  crowd 
into  the  villages  of  the  South  on  Saturday,  seeking  to 
vary  the  monotony  of  their  hard  and  cheerless  lives. 
Mrs.  Washington  determined  to  get  hold  of  these  women 
and  utilize  the  time  spent  in  town  to  some  good  purpose. 
Accordingly,  the  first  mothers'  meeting  was  organized  in 
the  upper  story  of  an  old  store  which  then  stood  on  the 
main  street  of  the  village.  The  stairs  were  so  rickety 
that  the  women  were  almost  afraid  to  ascend  them.  It 
answered  the  purpose  temporarily,  however,  and  there 
was  no  rent  to  pay.  How  to  get  the  women  to  the  meet- 
296 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

ing  was,  for  a  time,  a  question.  For  fear  of  opposition 
Mrs.  Washington  took  no  one  into  her  confidence  except 
the  man  who  let  her  have  the  room.  She  sent  a  small  boy 
through  the  streets  with  the  instruction  to  go  to  every 
colored  woman  loitering  about  the  streets  and  say:  *  There 
is  a  woman  upstairs  who  has  something  for  you/  Mrs. 
Washington  says:  'That  first  meeting  I  can  never  forget. 
The  women  came,  and  each  one,  as  she  entered,  looked 
at  me  and  seemed  to  say,  'Where  is  it?'  We  talked  it 
all  over,  the  needs  of  our  women  of  the  country,  the 
best  way  of  helping  each  other,  and  there  and  then  began 
the  first  mothers'  meeting  which  now  has  in  its  member- 
ship two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  women.'     .     .     . 

"Mrs.  Washington  asked  some  of  the  teachers  at 
Tuskegee  to  begin  to  help  these  people  (the  people  of 
the  country  districts  surrounding  the  school) .  At  first 
they  went  to  the  plantation  (selected  for  the  purpose) 
on  Sundays  only.  Mrs.  Washington  selected  what 
seemed  to  be  the  most  promising  cabin  and  asked  the 
woman  who  lived  there  if  she  could  come  to  that  house 
the  next  Sunday  and  hold  a  meeting.  When  the  party 
went  down  early  the  next  Sunday  morning  a  stout  new 
broom  was  taken  along.  Making  the  woman  a  present 
of  the  broom,  it  was  suggested  that  all  take  a  hand  in 
cleaning  the  house  a  little  before  the  people  should  begin 
to  come.  The  woman  took  the  broom  and  swept  half  of 
the  room,  when  Mrs.  Washington  volunteered  to  finish 
the  job. 

She  had  not  gone  far  along  on  her  half  before  the 

297 


tt, 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

woman  was  saying:  'Oh,  Mis'  Washington,  lemme  take 
de  brom  an'  do  mah  half  ovah.'  Mrs.  Washington  says: 
'I  have  always  thought  that  that  one  unconscious  lesson 
in  thoroughness  was  the  foundation  of  our  work  on  that 
plantation.'     .     .     . 

"Not  the  least  of  the  duties  which  fall  to  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington is  that  of  caring  for  the  distinguished  people  who 
visit  the  Tuskegee  Institute.  The  Tuskegee  rule  that 
everything  must  be  in  readiness  for  the  inspection  of 
visitors,  as  much  so  in  the  kitchen  as  in  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  school,  prevails  in  her  home  also. 

"An  interesting  part  of  this  home  life  is  the  Sunday 
morning  breakfast.  The  teachers  have  slept  later  than 
usual,  and,  through  the  year,  when  Mr.  Washington  is  at 
home,  they  are  invited  in  groups  of  three  and  four  to 
share  this  morning  meal.  In  this  way  he  keeps  in  per- 
sonal touch  with  each  of  his  teachers;  he  knows  what  they 
are  doing;  he  hears  their  complaints,  if  they  have  any; 
he  counsels  with  them;  they  'get  together.' 

"Mrs.  Washington's  labors  for  the  good  of  her  people 
are  not  confined  to  the  school.  She  is  (has  been)  president 
of  the  Southern  Federation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs, 
editor  of  the  official  organ  of  the  National  Federation  of 
Colored  Women's  Clubs,  of  which  she  is  also  an  officer. 
She  is  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  newspapers  and 
magazines.  (Mrs.  Washington  has  since  served  two 
terms  as  president  of  the  National  Federation  of  Colored 
Women's  Clubs.) 

"Mr.  Washington's  own  estimate  of  his  wife's  help- 
298 


MANAGING  A  GREAT  INSTITUTION 

fulness  to  him  may  be  gathered  from  his  tribute  in  his 
widely  read  autobiography,  'Up  from  Slavery':  'She 
is  completely  one  with  me  in  the  work  directly  connected 
with  the  school,  relieving  me  of  many  burdens  and  per- 
plexities. 


299 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

WASHINGTON:    THE    MAN 

JUST  as  in  the  first  chapter  we  sought  to  show  the 
man  in  the  making,  so  in  this  last  chapter  we  shall 
seek  to  picture  him  as  he  became  in  the  full  frui- 
tion of  his  life.  In  the  fully  developed  man  of  the  last 
decade  of  his  life  we  find  the  same  traits  and  qualities 
which  began  to  show  themselves  in  those  early  years  of 
constant  struggle  and  frequent  privation.  There  is  the 
same  intense  mental  and  physical  activity;  the  same 
readiness  to  fight  against  any  odds  in  a  good  cause;  the 
same  modesty,  frankness,  open-mindedness,  and  passion 
for  service. 

One  of  the  many  illustrations  of  this  intense  activity  was 
shown  in  a  trip  he  made  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  three  or  four  years 
before  he  died.  Even  at  this  time  his  strength  had  begun 
to  wane.  In  accordance  with  his  unfailing  practice  he  got 
up  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  after  visiting  his 
poultry  and  his  beloved  pigs,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode 
over  farms  and  grounds  inspecting  crops  and  buildings  and 
what-not  until  eight  o'clock,  when  he  went  to  his  office  and 
attacked  his  huge  morning's  mail.  After  dictating  for  an 
hour  or  more  he  left  his  office  just  in  time  to  catch  a  train 
which  brought  him  to  Atlanta  at  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
300 


THE  MAN 

noon.  At  the  station  he  shook  hands  with  four  hundred 
people  who  had  gathered  to  meet  him.  As  he  went  along 
the  streets  to  the  Government  Building  he  shook  hands 
with  many  others  who  recognized  him  in  passing.  At  the 
Government  Building  he  shook  hands  with  another  large 
group  assembled  there  to  meet  him.  After  the  dinner 
tendered  him  by  some  of  the  leading  individuals  and  asso- 
ciations among  the  Negroes  of  the  city  he  posed  for  his 
photograph  with  a  group  of  those  at  the  dinner.  He  then 
made  a  tour  of  the  city  by  motor,  during  which  he  visited 
three  or  four  schools  for  Negroes  and  at  each  made  a  half- 
hour  speech  into  which,  as  always,  he  threw  all  the  force 
and  energy  there  was  in  him. 

After  supper  that  evening  he  addressed  twelve  hundred 
people  in  the  Auditorium  Armory,  speaking  for  an  hour 
and  a  half.  From  the  armory  he  went  to  a  banquet  given 
in  his  honor  where  he  gave  a  twenty-minute  talk.  He  did 
not  get  to  bed  until  one  o'clock.  Four  hours  later  he  took  a 
return  train  which  brought  him  back  to  the  school  by  ten- 
thirty.  He  went  at  once  to  his  office  and  to  work,  working 
until  late  in  the  afternoon  when  he  called  for  his  horse  and 
took  his  usual  ride  before  supper.  After  supper  he  pre- 
sided at  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  Council  and  after  the 
Council  meeting  he  attended  the  Chapel  exercises.  After 
these  exercises  were  over  at  ten  o'clock  he  made  an  in- 
spection on  foot  of  various  parts  of  the  buildings  and 
grounds  before  going  to  bed.  By  just  such  excessive  over- 
work did  he  constantly  undermine  and  finally  break  down 
his  almost  superhuman  strength  and  powers  of  endurance. 

301 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

This  he  did  with  an  obstinate  persistence  in  spite  of  wise 
and  increasingly  urgent  warnings  from  physicians,  friends, 
and  associates.  Where  his  own  health  was  concerned  he 
obdurately  refused  to  listen  to  reason.  It  would  almost 
seem  as  though  he  had  deliberately  chosen  to  put  forth 
herculean  efforts  until  he  dropped  from  sheer  exhaustion 
rather  than  to  work  with  moderation  for  a  longer  span  of 
life. 

Booker  Washington  was  a  man  who  thought,  lived,  and 
acted  on  a  very  high  plane.  He  was,  in  other  words,  an 
idealist,  but  unlike  too  many  idealists  he  was  sternly  prac- 
tical. His  mind  worked  with  the  rapidity  of  flashes  of 
lightning,  particularly  when  he  was  aroused.  This  led 
him  at  times  to  feel  and  show  impatience  in  dealing  with 
slower-minded  people,  particularly  his  subordinates.  He 
was  often  stirred  to  righteous  indignation  by  injustice,  but 
always  kept  his  temper  under  control.  He  had  a  lucid 
mind  which  reasoned  from  cause  to  effect  with  machine- 
like accuracy.  His  intuitions  were  amazingly  keen  and 
accurate.  In  other  words,  his  subconscious  reasoning 
powers  were  very  highly  developed.  Consequently  his 
judgments  of  men  and  events  were  almost  infallible.  Al- 
though practically  devoid  of  personal  vanity,  he  was  a  very 
proud  and  independent  man,  and  one  who  could  not  brook 
dictation  from  any  one  or  bear  to  be  under  obligation  to 
any  one.  He  had  the  tenacity  of  a  bulldog.  His  capacity 
for  incessant  work  and  his  unswerving  pursuit  of  a  purpose 
once  formed,  were  a  constant  marvel  to  those  who  sur- 
rounded him.  While  he  was  without  conceit  or  vanity  he 
302 


THE  MAN 

had  almost  unlimited  self-confidence.  While  it  cannot  be 
said  that  he  overrated  his  own  abilities,  neither  can  it  be 
said  that  he  underrated  them.  His  sympathies  were 
easily  aroused  and  he  was  abnormally  sensitive,  but  he 
never  allowed  his  emotions  to  get  the  better  of  his  judg- 
ment. He  forgave  easily  and  always  tried  to  find  excuses 
for  people  who  wronged,  insulted,  or  injured  him.  In  rep- 
artee he  could  hold  his  own  with  any  one  and  enjoyed 
nothing  more  than  a  duel  of  wits  either  with  an  individual 
or  an  audience. 

Less  than  a  month  before  he  died,  when  he  was  wasted  by 
disease  and  suffering  almost  constant  pain,  he  received  this 
letter  of  appeal  from  Madame  Helena  Paderewski: 

New  York,  October  26,  191 5. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Washington:  I  am  writing  you  a  very 
personal  letter  on  a  subject  that  is  close  to  my  heart,  and  I 
know  the  message  it  carries  will  find  a  response  in  your  gen- 
erous sympathy.  It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  recall 
our  meeting,  some  years  ago,  and  I  have  watched  the  suc- 
cess of  your  work  among  your  people  with  sincere  satis- 
faction, for  I  have  always  been  an  advocate  of  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  you  stand,  the  uplift  of  the  colored  race. 

It  is  because  I  know  you  have  ever  directed  your  broad 
influence  toward  the  most  worthy  causes  that  I  am  asking 
you  in  the  name  of  the  starving  babies  and  their  helpless 
mothers,  to  tell  your  people  that  we  need  them  in  our  work 
of  sending  food  and  medicines  to  Poland.  We  need,  my 
dear  sir,  even  the  smallest  contribution  that  your  beloved 
followers  may  offer,  and  I  beg  of  you  to  make  an  appeal  to 
your  people.     Tell  them,  for  they  may  not  all  know  as  well 

3?3 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

as  you,  yourself,  that  it  was  a  Pole — Kosciusko — who,  in 
addition  to  fighting  for  American  liberty,  gave  that  which 
he  needed  himself  to  help  the  colored  race.  As  you  will 
recall,  after  refusing  the  grant  of  land  offered  him  in 
recognition  of  his  services  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  he 
returned  to  Poland,  not  wishing  to  accept  a  reward  for 
doing  what  he  considered  a  sublime  duty  to  those  in  need. 
Later,  after  eight  years,  when  he  again  visited  America,  he 
was  given  a  pension  as  General  in  the  American  Army. 
With  the  back  pay  during  his  absence,  the  sum  amounted 
to  about  $15,000.  Although  poor  himself,  he  felt  deep 
compassion  for  the  neglected  colored  children  and,  with 
the  money  given  him,  he  established  the  first  school  in 
America  devoted  exclusively  to  the  education  of  the 
colored  youth. 

I  am  sure  you  know  the  story  in  all  its  details,  but  I  de- 
sire the  colored  people  of  America  to  know  that  to-day  the 
descendants  of  the  man  who — unasked — aided  them — 
plead  for  a  crust  of  bread,  a  spoonful  of  milk  for  their 
hungry  children.  Tell  them  this  and  God  will  bless  and 
prosper  you  in  your  telling  and  them  in  their  giving.  Do 
not  think  that  small  amounts  are  useless — five  cents  may 
save  a  life.  I  am  sending  Mr.  Paderewski's  appeal,  but 
conditions,  to-day,  are  worse  now  than  when  it  was  written. 
Will  you  help  Poland  ?     Will  you  do  it  now  ? 

Please  reply  to  Hotel  Gotham. 

Yours  in  work  for  humanity, 

[Signed]    Helena  Paderewski. 

Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  Tuskegee,  Alabama. 

In  spite  of  disease,  pain,  and  weakness — in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  he  must  have  realized  that  his  remaining  time  for 
his  own  chosen  work  had  narrowed  down  to  a  matter  of 

304 


THE  MAN 

weeks — he  instantly  responded  to  this  appeal.  Immedi- 
ately he  sent  Madame  Paderewski's  letter  to  the  Negro 
press  of  the  entire  country  with  this  explanatory  note: 

MADAME  PADEREWSKI'S  APPEAL  FOR  POLISH  VICTIMS 

Madame  Helena  Paderewski,  wife  of  the  famous 
pianist,  has  addressed  a  letter  to  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washing- 
ton, of  the  Tuskegee  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute, 
making  an  appeal  for  the  Polish  victims  of  the  European 
War.  The  letter  is  sent  to  the  press  with  the  thought  that 
there  may  be  those  among  the  Negro  people  who  may  feel 
disposed  to  respond  to  Madame  Paderewski's  appeal. 

An  organization  known  as  the  Polish  Victims'  Relief 
Fund  has  been  organized,  with  headquarters  in  Aeolian 
Building,  35  West  Forty-Second  Street,  New  York  City. 
Madame  Paderewski's  letter  follows,  etc. 

Immediately  after  Mr.  Washington's  death  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington received  the  following  note  from  Madame  Pade- 
rewski : 

New  York,  November  15,  191 6. 
Mrs.  Booker  T.  Washington,  Tuskegee,  Alabama. 

My  Dear  Mrs.  Washington:  It  was  with  a  feeling  of 
personal  loss  that  I  read  this  morning  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Washington.  I  have  always  admired  his  courage  and 
wonderful  ability,  and  his  passing  at  this  time  brings  a 
double  sorrow,  for  in  this  morning's  mail  I  received  a  copy 
of  the  Tuskegee  Student  containing  my  letter  and  ap- 
peal to  Dr.  Washington.  I  wish  it  had  been  possible  for 
me  to  have  thanked  him  for  what  he  has  done,  but  I  am 
sure  that  the  Heavenly  Father  will  bless  this  and  the  many 
other  good  works  with  which  he  was  connected. 

30S 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

I  desire  you  to  know  how  much  I  appreciate  the  kindness 
of  Dr.  Washington  and  how  highly  I  esteemed  him.  Please 
accept  my  deep  sympathy  and  believe  me, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

[Signed]     Helena    Paderewski. 


Although  apparently  indifferent  to  the  treatment  he  re- 
ceived from  those  about  him  Booker  Washington  was  in 
reality,  as  has  been  said,  unusually  sensitive.  No  matter 
what  his  engagements  he  always  insisted  upon  being  at 
home  with  his  wife  and  children  on  Thanksgiving  Day  and 
on  Christmas.  One  Christmas,  about  ten  years  ago,  it  so 
happened  that  no  Christmas  presents  were  provided  for 
him.  The  children  gave  presents  to  one  another  and  to 
their  mother  and  she  to  them,  but  through  oversight  there 
were  no  presents  for  Mr.  Washington.  Mrs.  Washington 
says  that  after  the  presents  had  been  opened  her  husband 
drew  her  aside  and  said  in  broken  tones:  "Maggie,  they've 
not  given  me  a  single  Christmas  present!"  From  then  on 
Mrs.  Washington  saw  to  it  that  the  children  remembered 
their  father  at  Christmas. 

In  Birmingham,  Ala.,  about  three  years  before  his  death, 
he  and  his  secretary  entered  an  office  building  one  day  to 
call  on  one  of  the  Tuskegee  Trustees  whose  office  was  on 
the  top  floor.  When  they  looked  for  an  elevator  they  were 
referred  by  the  hall  man  to  the  elevator  for  colored  people. 
On  this  elevator  was  a  sign  reading,  "For  Negroes  and 
Freight."  His  secretary  expected  him  to  comment  on 
this,  but  he  said  nothing  and  seemed  hardly  to  notice  it. 
306 


Mr.  Washington  feeding  his  chickens  with  green  stuffs  raised  in  his 

own  garden 


Mr.  Washington  in  his  onion  patch 


Mr.  Washington  sorting  in  his  lettuce  bed 


THE  MAN 

That  evening,  in  addressing  a  great  audience  of  both  races 
in  one  of  the  big  theatres  of  the  city,  he  was  urging  the 
Negroes  to  look  upon  their  Southern  white  neighbors  as 
their  friends  and  to  turn  to  them  for  advice  when  he  said 
very  slowly  and  distinctly:  "I  visited,  this  morning,  a 
building  which  had  on  the  elevator  for  colored  people  a 
sign  reading,  'For  Negroes  and  Freight.'  Now,  my 
friends,  that  is  mighty  discouraging  to  the  colored  man!" 
At  this  not  only  the  colored  people,  but  the  white  people 
sprang  to  their  feet  and  shouted,  many  of  them,  "You're 
right,  Doctor!"  "That's  mean!"  "That's  not  fair!" 
and  other  such  expressions. 

Every  morning  before  breakfast  when  at  home  Mr. 
Washington  would  visit  his  chickens,  pigs,  and  cows. 
He  said  of  finding  the  newly  laid  eggs:  "I  like  to  find  the 
new  eggs  each  morning  myself,  and  am  selfish  enough  to 
permit  no  one  else  to  do  this  in  my  place.  As  with  growing 
plants,  there  is  a  sense  of  freshness  and  newness  and  rest- 
fulness  in  connection  with  the  finding  and  handling  of 
newly  laid  eggs  that  is  delightful  to  me.  Both  the  real- 
ization and  the  anticipation  are  most  pleasing.  I  be- 
gin the  day  by  seeing  how  many  eggs  I  can  find  or  how 
many  little  chicks  there  are  that  are  just  beginning  to 
creep  through  the  shells.  I  am  deeply  interested  in  the 
different  kinds  of  fowls,  and  always  grow  a  number  of 
different  breeds  at  my  own  home." 

But  none  of  the  animals  interested  him  and  aroused  his 
enthusiasm  as  did  the  pigs.  He  always  kept  on  his  own 
place  some  choice  specimens  of  Berkshires   and    Poland 

307 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Chinas  at  whose  shrine  he  worshipped  each  morning. 
Also  he  always  insisted  that  the  swine  herd  of  the  In- 
stitute be  kept  recruited  up  to  full  strength  and  in  fact 
considerably  beyond  full  strength  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Agricultural  Director  who  in  vain  protested  that  it  was  not 
profitable  to  keep  so  large  a  herd.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  know  whether  the  great  economic  importance  of  the  pig 
to  his  race  was  at  the  bottom  of  Booker  Washington's 
fondness  for  the  animal. 

After  breakfast  he  mounted  his  horse  and  made  a  round 
of  the  Institute  farms,  truck  gardens,  dormitories,  and 
shops  before  going  to  his  office  and  attacking  his  huge 
correspondence.  This  correspondence,  both  in  its  dimen- 
sions and  catholicity,  was  typical  of  the  man.  His  daily  in- 
coming mail  amounted  to  between  125  and  150  letters. 
The  outgoing  ran  to  between  500  and  1,000  letters  daily — 
in  large  part,  of  course,  "campaign  letters,"  as  he  called 
them,  letters  seeking  to  interest  new  friends  in  the  work  of 
the  Institute,  and  others  keeping  in  touch  with  friends  al- 
ready interested,  etc.  His  advice,  opinion,  or  comments 
were  sought  on  every  conceivable  subject  both  by  seri- 
ous and  sensible  men  and  women  and  by  cranks  of  both 
races.  Hundreds  of  the  humbler  people  of  his  own  race 
were  constantly  applying  to  him  for  information  and  ad- 
vice as  to  whether  it  would  be  profitable  to  start  this  or 
that  business  venture,  or  whether  or  not  it  would  be  possi- 
ble to  establish  a  school  in  this  or  that  community,  and 
how  they  should  set  about  it. 

Booker  Washington's  sense  of  justice  was  unquench- 
308 


THE  MAN 

able.  While  at  Coden-on-the-Bay,  near  Mobile,  Ala.,  in 
September,  1915,  snatching  a  few  days  of  rest  and  recrea- 
tion as  a  palliative  for  the  insidious  disease  which  was  so 
soon  to  end  his  life,  he  was  distressed  by  a  newspaper  re- 
port of  the  killing  of  a  number  of  Haitians  by  United 
States  Marines.  He  read  the  report  in  a  Mobile  paper  late 
one  afternoon  on  his  return  from  a  fishing  trip.  He  went 
to  bed  but  could  not  sleep.  The  misfortunes  of  the  tur- 
bulent little  black  republic  seethed  through  his  mind. 
Early  in  the  morning,  while  his  companions  were  still 
sleeping,  he  awakened  the  inevitable  stenographer  and 
dictated  an  article  counselling  patience  in  dealing  with  the 
unfortunate  little  country.  This  article,  dictated  by  a 
dying  man  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  briefly  recites 
the  history  of  Haiti  from  the  period  over  a  hundred  years 
ago  when  the  people  of  the  island  wrested  their  liberty 
from  France  under  the  leadership  of  Toussaint  L'Ouver- 
ture,  up  to  the  present  time.     He  then  says  in  part: 

"Associated  Press  dispatches  a  few  days  ago  stated  that 
forty  or  fifty  Haitians  had  been  killed  on  Haytian  soil  in 
one  day  by  American  marines  and  a  number  of  marines 
wounded.  To  every  black  man  in  the  United  States  this 
dispatch  brought  a  feeling  of  disappointment  and  sorrow. 
While,  as  I  have  stated,  the  United  States,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, was  compelled  to  take  notice  of  conditions  in 
Haiti  and  is  being  compelled  to  control  matters,  largely 
because  of  the  fault  of  the  Haitians,  I  had  hoped  that  the 
United  States  would  be  patient  in  dealing  with  the  Haitian 
Government  and  people.     The  United  States  has  been 

309 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

patient  with  Germany.  It  has  been  patient  in  the  Phil- 
ippines. It  has  been  exceedingly  patient  in  dealing  with 
Mexico.  I  hope  this  country  will  be  equally  patient  and 
more  than  patient  in  dealing  with  Haiti — a  weaker  and 
more  unfortunate  country! 

"I  very  much  wish  that  it  might  have  been  possible  for 
the  United  States  to  have  taken  a  little  more  time  in  mak- 
ing known  to  the  Haitians  the  purposes  we  have  in  mind  in 
taking  over  the  control  of  their  custom  houses  and  their 
governmental  affairs.  While  everything  that  we  intend  to 
do,  and  have  in  mind  to  do,  is  perfectly  plain  to  the 
officials  of  the  United  States,  we  must  remember  that  all 
this  is  not  perfectly  plain  to  the  Haitians.  It  would  have 
been  worth  while,  in  my  opinion,  before  attempting 
arbitrarily  to  force  Haiti  to  sign  the  treaty  put  before  its 
officials,  to  have  spent  a  little  time  and  a  little  patience  in 
informing  the  Haitian  people  of  the  unselfish  benevolence 
of  our  intentions.  They,  in  time,  would  have  understood 
why  it  is  necessary  to  intervene  in  their  affairs. 

"Another  reason,  in  my  opinion,  why  patience  may  be 
manifested  in  this  matter  is  that  the  treaty,  even  at  the 
best,  cannot  be  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  until 
it  meets  in  regular  session  in  December,  unless  the  Presi- 
dent calls  it  in  special  session  earlier. 

"I  confess  that  while  I  am  unschooled  in  such  matters, 
since  reading  the  treaty  the  Haitians  have  been  told  they 
must  ratify,  it  seems  to  me  rather  harsh  and  precipitate; 
one  cannot  be  surprised  that  the  Haitians  have  hesitated 
to  agree  to  all  the  conditions  provided  for  in  this  treaty. 
310 


THE  MAN 

No  wonder  they  have  hesitated  when  they  have  had  so 
little  time  in  which  to  understand  it,  when  the  masses  of 
the  Haitian  people  know  little  or  nothing  of  what  the 
treaty  contemplates. 

"The  way  matters  are  now  going,  there  is  likely  to  be 
bitterness  and  war.  The  United  States,  in  the  end,  will 
conquer,  will  control,  will  have  its  way,  but  it  is  one  thing 
to  conquer  a  people  through  love,  through  unselfish  inter- 
est in  their  welfare,  and  another  thing  to  conquer  them 
through  the  bullet,  through  the  shotgun.  Shooting  civili- 
zation into  the  Haitians  on  their  own  soil  will  be  an  amaz- 
ing spectacle.  Sending  marines  as  diplomats  and  Mauser 
bullets  as  messengers  of  destruction  breed  riot  and  an- 
archy, and  are  likely  to  leave  a  legacy  of  age-long  hatreds 
and  regrets. 

"I  also  hope  the  United  States  will  not  pursue  a  mere 
negative  policy  in  Haiti,  that  is,  a  policy  of  controlling 
the  customs  and  what-not,  without  going  further  in  pro- 
gressive, constructive  directions.  In  a  word,  the  United 
States  now  has  an  opportunity  to  do  a  big  piece  of  fine 
work  for  Haiti  in  the  way  of  education,  something  the 
island  has  never  had.  I  hope  some  way  will  be  provided 
by  which  a  portion  of  the  revenues  will  be  used  in  giving 
the  people  a  thorough,  up-to-date  system  of  common 
school,  agricultural,  and  industrial  education.  Here  is  an 
excellent  opportunity  for  some  of  the  young  colored  men 
and  women  of  the  United  States  who  have  been  educated 
in  the  best  methods  of  education  in  this  country  to  go  to 
Haiti  and  help  their  fellows.     Here  is  an  opportunity  for 

3" 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

some  of  the  most  promising  Haitian  boys  and  girls  to  be 
sent  to  schools  in  the  United  States.  Here  is  an  oppor- 
tunity for  us  to  use  our  influence  and  power  in  giving  the 
Haitians  something  they  have  never  had,  and  that  is  edu- 
cation, real  education.  At  least  95  per  cent,  of  the  peo- 
ple, as  I  have  said,  are  unlettered  and  ignorant  so  far  as 
books  are  concerned." 

Booker  Washington's  self-control  was  never  more 
needed  than  on  an  occasion  at  Tuskegee  described  by  T. 
Thomas  Fortune,  the  Negro  author  and  publicist.  A 
Confederate  veteran  who  had  lost  an  arm  fighting  for  the 
Confederacy  and  who  had  served  for  a  number  of  years 
in  Congress  was  on  the  program  to  speak  at  a  Tuskegee 
meeting.  This  Confederate  veteran  had  a  great  liking 
for  Mr.  Washington  and  believed  in  his  ideas  on  the  im- 
portance of  industrial  education  for  the  colored  people. 
Mr.  Fortune  says: 

"John  C.  Dancy,  a  colored  man,  at  that  time  Collector 
of  Customs  at  Wilmington,  N.  C,  was  to  speak  first,  the 
Confederate  veteran  second,  and  I  was  to  follow  the  latter. 
Mr.  Dancy  is  an  unusually  bright  and  eloquent  man. 
Mr.  Dancy  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  New  England 
men  and  women  who  had  built  up  the  educational  interest 
among  the  colored  people  after  the  war,  of  which  Hampton 
and  Tuskegee  Institutes  are  lasting  monuments.  Mr. 
Dancy  had  plenty  of  applause  from  the  great  concourse 
of  countrymen,  but  his  address  made  the  white  speaker 
furious.  When  the  former  Congressman  was  called  upon 
to  speak  he  showed  plainly  that  he  was  agitated  out  of  his 
312 


THE  MAN 

self-restraint.  Without  any  introductory  remarks  what- 
ever, he  said,  as  I  remember  it: 

"'I  have  written  this  address  for  you,'  waving  it  at  the 
audience,  'but  I  will  not  deliver  it.  I  want  to  give  you 
niggers  a  few  words  of  plain  talk  and  advice.  No  such 
address  as  you  have  just  listened  to  is  going  to  do  you  any 
good;  it's  going  to  spoil  you.  You  had  better  not  listen 
to  such  speeches.  You  might  just  as  well  understand 
that  this  is  a  white  man's  country,  as  far  as  the  South  is 
concerned,  and  we  are  going  to  make  you  keep  your  place. 
Understand  that.     I  have  nothing  more  to  say  to  you.' 

"The  audience  was  taken  back  as  much  by  the  blunt- 
ness  of  the  remarks  as  if  they  had  been  doused  with  cold 
water.  Indignation  was  everywhere  visible  on  the  coun- 
tenances of  the  people.  But  Mr.  Washington  appeared 
unruffled.  On  the  contrary,  his  heavy  jaw  was  hard  set 
and  his  eyes  danced  in  a  merry  measure.  It  was  a  time  to 
keep  one's  temper  and  wits,  and  he  did  so,  as  usual.  With- 
out betraying  any  feeling  in  the  matter,  and  when  every- 
body expected  him  to  announce  the  next  speaker,  he  said: 

" '  Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  we  have  had  enough  eloquence  for  one  occasion. 
We  shall  listen  to  the  next  speaker  at  another  occasion, 
when  we  are  not  so  fagged  out.  We  will  now  rise,  sing 
the  doxology,  and  be  dismissed.' 

''The  audience  did  so,  but  it  was  the  most  funereal 
proceeding  I  had  ever  witnessed  upon  such  an  occasion. 
Mr.  Washington's  imperturbable  good  nature  alone  saved 
the  day." 

313 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

Some  time  after  President  Roosevelt  had  begun  to  con- 
sult Booker  Washington  on  practically  all  his  appoint- 
ments and  policies  which  particularly  affected  the  rela- 
tions between  the  races,  and  after  several  Southern  white 
men  had  been  given  Federal  appointments  on  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's recommendation,  the  bitterness  against  him 
grew  so  intense,  especially  among  the  "Talented  Tenth" 
element  of  the  Northern  Negroes,  that  he  decided  to  meet 
a  group  of  their  leaders  face  to  face,  and  have  it  out. 
Accordingly,  through  Mr.  Fortune,  he  arranged  to  meet  a 
number  of  these  men  at  a  dinner  at  Young's  Hotel  in 
Boston.     Mr.  Fortune  thus  describes  what  took  place: 

"At  the  proper  time,  when  the  coffee  and  cigars  were 
served,  I  arose  and  told  the  diners  that  Dr.  Washington 
had  desired  to  meet  them  at  the  banquet  table  and  at  the 
proper  time  to  have  each  one  of  them  express  freely  his 
opinion  of  the  race  question,  and  how  best  the  race  could 
be  served  in  the  delicate  crisis  through  which  it  was  then 
passing.  Each  of  the  speakers  launched  into  a  tirade 
against  Dr.  Washington  and  his  policies  and  methods, 
many  of  them  in  lofty  flights  of  speech  they  had  learned 
at  Harvard  University.  The  atmosphere  was  dense  with 
discontent  and  denunciation. 

"The  climax  was  reached  when  William  H.  Lewis,  the 
famous  Harvard  football  coach,  told  Dr.  Washington  to  go 
back  South,  and  attend  to  his  work  of  educating  the  Negro 
and  'leave  to  us  the  matters  political  affecting  the  race.' 
Every  eye  was  upon  Dr.  Washington's  face,  but  none  of 
them  could  read  anything  in  it;  it  was  as  inscrutable  as  a 

3H 


THE  MAN 

wooden  Indian's.  When  every  one  of  them  had  had  his 
say,  I  called  upon  Dr.  Washington  to  respond  to  the  speak- 
ers who  had  unburdened  themselves.  Dr.  Washington 
rose  slowly,  and  with  a  slip  of  paper  in  his  hand,  said : 

"'Gentlemen,  I  want  to  tell  you  about  what  we  are 
doing  at  Tuskegee  Institute  in  the  Black  Belt  of  Ala- 
bama.' 

"For  more  than  a  half-hour  he  told  them  of  the  needs 
and  the  work  without  once  alluding  to  anything  that  had 
been  said  in  heat  and  anger  by  those  to  whom  he  spoke. 
He  held  them  close  to  him  by  his  simple  recital,  with  here 
and  there  a  small  blaze  of  eloquence,  and  then  thanking 
them  for  the  candor  with  which  they  had  spoken,  sat  down. 
They  were  all  disappointed,  as  they  expected  that  he 
would  attempt  to  excuse  himself  for  the  things  they  had 
complained  of." 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Washington's  death,  the  same  Wil- 
liam H.  Lewis,  who  told  him  at  this  time  to  go  back  to  the 
South  and  attend  to  his  work  and  "leave  to  us  the  matters 
political  affecting  the  race,"  said  of  him: 

"Words,  like  tears,  are  vain  and  idle  things  to  express 
the  great  anguish  I  feel  at  the  untimely  death  of  Booker 
Washington.  He  was  my  friend  who  understood  me  and 
believed  in  me.  I  did  not  always  believe  in  him  because 
I  did  not  understand  him.  I  first  saw  and  heard  him 
when  a  junior  at  Amherst  in  the  early  90's,  when  he  spoke 
at  Old  John  Brown's  church  in  Springfield,  where  I  jour- 
neyed to  hear  him.  I  could  not  then  appreciate  his 
love  for  the  Southern  people  and  his  gospel  of  work.     I 

315 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

even  doubted  his  loyalty  to  his  race.  When  I  came  to 
Boston  I  joined  in  with  his  most  violent  and  bitterest 
critics.  The  one  thing  that  I  am  so  thankful  for  is  that 
I  early  saw  the  light  and  came  to  appreciate  and  under- 
stand the  great  work  of  Booker  T.  Washington. 

"I  have  just  finished  reading  an  old  letter  from  him, 
date,  October  I,  1901,  in  which  he  said:  'The  main  point 
of  this  letter  is  to  say  I  believe  that  both  you  and  I  are 
going  to  be  in  a  position  in  the  future  to  serve  the  race 
effectually,  and  while  it  is  very  probable  that  we  shall  al- 
ways differ  as  to  detailed  methods  of  lifting  up  the  race, 
it  seems  to  me  that  if  we  agree  in  each  doing  our  best  to 
lift  it  up  the  main  point  will  have  been  gained,  and  I  am 
sure  that  in  our  anxiety  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
race  there  is  no  difference  between  us,  and  I  shall  be  de- 
lighted to  work  in  hearty  cooperation  with  you.' 

"Since  then,  I  have  known  him  intimately  and  well. 
He  was  unselfish  and  generous  to  a  fault;  he  was  modest 
yet  masterful;  he  was  quiet  yet  intense;  his  common 
sense  and  sagacity  seemed  uncanny,  such  was  his  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature.  His  was  a  great  soul  in  which  no 
bitterness  or  littleness  could  even  find  a  lurking  place. 
His  was  the  great  heart  of  Lincoln,  with  malice  toward 
none  and  charity  for  all.  He  loved  all  men  and  all  men 
loved  him. 

"My  humble  prayer  is  that  his  torch  has  lighted  another 
among  the  dark  millions  of  America,  to  lead  the  race  on- 
ward and  upward." 

Booker  Washington's  insistence  that  the  classrooms, 
316 


THE  MAN 

shops,  and  farms  were  for  the  development  of  the  students 
rather  than  the  students  for  their  development  was  well 
illustrated  by  a  remark  he  once  made  to  Bishop  William 
Lawrence  of  Massachusetts  when  the  Bishop  was  visiting 
the  Institute.  In  reply  to  Bishop  Lawrence's  question 
as  to  whether  he  had  chosen  the  best  available  land  for  his 
agricultural  work,  he  said,  "No,  sir,  I  chose  pretty  nearly 
the  poorest  land  I  could  find.  I  chose  land  on  which  men 
would  have  to  spend  all  their  energies  to  bring  out  the 
life  in  the  land.  They  work  here  under  the  hardest 
conditions.  When  they  go  out  to  other  lands — to  their 
own  lands,  perhaps — they  won't  find  any  worse  land  to  till. 
If  they  find  any  better  land  the  difference  will  be  all  gain 
for  them," 

Perhaps  more  remarkable  than  any  or  all  of  his  achieve- 
ments was  the  fact  that  Booker  Washington  was  a  gentle- 
man. It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  who  better 
conformed  to  the  exacting  yet  illusive  requirements  of 
that  term.  He  had  not  only  the  naturalness  and  the 
goodness  of  heart  which  are  the  fundamentals,  but  he 
had  also  the  breeding  and  the  polish  which  distinguish 
the  finished  gentleman  from  the  "rough  diamond."  This 
fact  about  Booker  Washington  has  been  well  described 
by  Hamilton  Wright  Mabie  in  an  article  entitled:  "Booker 
T.  Washington:  Gentleman,"  in  which  he  says  in  part: 

"  Booker  Washington  became  one  of  the  foremost  men 
in  America;  he  was  heard  on  great  occasions  by  great  audi- 
ences with  profound  attention;  he  was  a  writer  and  speaker 
of  National  position,  the  founder  of  a  college,  and  the 

317 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

organizing  leader  of  a  race  in  ideas  and  industry.  These 
were  notable  achievements;  but  there  was  another  achieve- 
ment which  was  in  its  way  more  notable.  Without  any 
advantages  of  birth  or  station  or  training,  a  member  of 
an  ostracized  race,  with  the  doors  of  social  life  closed  in 
his  face,  Dr.  Washington  was  a  gentleman.  I  recall  two 
illustrations  of  this  quality  of  nature,  often  lacking  in 
men  of  great  ability  and  usefulness.  The  first  was  in 
Stafford  House,  London,  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of 
Sutherland.  The  older  Duke  was  the  lifelong  friend  of 
Queen  Victoria;  and  once,  when  she  was  going  to  Stafford 
House,  she  wrote  the  Duke  that  she  was  about  to  leave 
her  uninteresting  house  for  his  beautiful  palace.  Nothing 
could  be  more  stately  than  the  great  hall  of  Stafford  House, 
with  its  two  marble  stairways  ascending  to  the  galleries 
above;  and  when  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  standing  on 
the  dais  from  which  the  stairs  ascended,  received  her  guests 
she  reminded  more  than  one  of  her  guests  of  the  splendid 
picture  drawn  by  Edmund  Burke  of  Marie  Antoinette 
moving  like  a  star  through  the  palace  of  Versailles.  On 
that  evening  Dr.  Washington  was  present.  At  one  time 
in  one  of  the  rooms  he  happened  to  be  talking  with  the 
duchess  and  two  other  women  of  high  rank,  two  of  them 
women  of  great  beauty  and  stateliness.  There  were  some 
people  present  who  were  evidently  very  much  impressed 
by  their  surroundings.  Booker  Washington  seemed  to 
be  absolutely  unconscious  of  the  splendor  of  the  house  in 
which  he  was,  or  of  the  society  in  which  for  the  moment 
he  found  himself.  Born  in  a  hut  without  a  door-sill,  he 
3iS 


THE  MAN 

was  at  ease  in  the  most  stately  and  beautiful  private 
palace  in  London. 

"On  another  occasion  there  was  to  be  a  Tuskegee  meet- 
ing at  Bar  Harbor.  The  Casino  had  been  beautifully 
decorated  for  a  dance  the  night  before.  The  harbor  was 
full  of  yachts,  the  tennis  courts  of  fine-looking  young  men 
and  women;  it  was  a  picture  of  luxury  tempered  with 
intelligence.  Mr.  Washington  was  looking  out  of  the 
window.  Presently  he  turned  to  me  and  said,  with  a 
smile,  'And  last  Wednesday  morning  I  was  eating  break- 
fast in  a  shanty  in  Alabama;  there  were  five  of  us  and 
we  had  one  spoon!' " 

At  the  time  of  his  stay  in  London,  during  which  this 
reception  at  Stafford  House  took  place,  he  was  given  a 
luncheon  by  a  group  of  distinguished  men  to  which  Mr. 
Asquith,  the  Prime  Minister,  was  invited.  In  reply,  Mr. 
Asquith  sent  this  note: 

IO  Downing  Street,  Whitehall,  S.  W. 

26th  September,  1910. 
Dear  Sir:  I  much  regret  that  my  engagements  do 
not  allow  me  to  accept  your  invitation  to  be  present  at 
the  luncheon  which  it  is  proposed  to  give  in  honor  of 
Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington.  I  feel  sure,  however,  that 
he  will  be  welcomed  with  a  cordiality  which  his  persistent 
and  successful  labors  in  the  cause  of  the  education  of  the 
American  Negro  deserve,  especially  at  the  hands  of  English 
men,  whose  difficulties  in  many  parts  of  the  Empire  have 
been  helped  toward  a  solution  by  the  results  of  his  work. 

Yours  faithfully, 

[Signed]  H.   H.  Asquith. 

319 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

While  at  home,  no  matter  how  pressed  and  driven  with 
work,  Booker  Washington  snatched  an  hour  or  so  every 
day  for  hunting  or  riding.  This  daily  exercise  became  a 
fetich  with  him  which  he  clung  to  with  unreasonable 
obstinacy.  He  would  frequently  set  off  upon  these  hunts 
or  rides  in  so  exhausted  a  condition  that  obviously  their 
only  effect  could  be  worse  exhaustion.  His  intense  ad- 
miration for  Theodore  Roosevelt  probably  had  its  in- 
fluence, conscious  or  unconscious,  in  strengthening  his 
devotion  to  violent  outdoor  exercise. 

Whatever  he  was  doing  or  wherever  he  was,  his  mind 
seemed  constantly  at  work  along  constructive  lines.  At 
the  most  unexpected  times  and  places  he  would  suddenly 
call  the  inevitable  stenographer  and  dictate  some  idea  for 
an  article  or  address  or  some  plan  for  the  improvement  of 
Tuskegee  or  for  the  betterment  of  the  whole  race  in  this 
or  that  particular.  He  would  sometimes  reduce  his 
immediate  subordinates  to  the  verge  of  despair  by  pour- 
ing out  upon  them  in  rapid  succession  constructive  sugges- 
tions each  one  of  which  meant  hours,  days,  and  even  weeks 
of  time  to  work  out,  and  then  calling  for  the  results  of  all 
before  even  one  could  be  fairly  put  into  effect.  This 
tendency  became  particularly  marked  in  his  closing  years 
when  the  consciousness  of  an  immense  amount  of  work 
to  be  done  and  a  short  and  constantly  lessening  period  in 
which  to  do  it  must  have  become  an  obsession  and  almost 
a  nightmare  to  him. 

He  would  sometimes  wound  the  feelings  of  acquaint- 
ances and  friends,  particularly  his  teachers,  by  passing 
320 


THE  MAN 

them  on  the  street  and  even  looking  at  them  without 
recognition.  This  naturally  was  not  intentional,  nor  was 
it  because  his  mind  was  wool-gathering,  but  merely  be- 
cause he  was  thinking  out  some  idea  with  which  the  people 
and  events  immediately  about  him  had  for  the  moment 
no  connection  and  were  consequently  totally  obliterated 
from  his  consciousness. 

Mr.  Washington's  strength  of  will  and  determination 
were  never  better  shown  than  in  the  closing  hours  of  his 
life.  When  he  was  told  by  his  doctors  at  St.  Luke's  Hos- 
pital, New  York,  whither  he  had  been  taken  by  the  New 
York  trustees  of  the  Institute  after  his  final  collapse,  that 
he  had  but  a  few  hours  to  live,  he  insisted  upon  starting 
for  home  at  once.  His  physicians  expostulated  and 
warned  him  that  in  his  condition  he  could  not  reasonably 
expect  to  survive  the  journey.  He  insisted  that  he  must 
go  and  be  true  to  his  oft-repeated  assertion,  "I  was  born 
in  the  South,  I  have  lived  and  labored  in  the  South,  and  I 
expect  to  die  and  be  buried  in  the  South."  This  remark, 
when  sent  out  in  the  Associated  Press  dispatches  an- 
nouncing his  death,  touched  the  South  as  nothing  else 
could  have.  No  Negro  was  ever  eulogized  in  the  Southern 
press  as  he  was.  Long  accounts  of  his  career  and  death 
with  sympathetic  and  appreciative  editorial  comments 
appeared  in  most  of  the  Southern  papers. 

One  of  the  doctors  who  was  called  in  to  attend  him  at 
the  time  he  was  taken  to  the  hospital  remarked  that  it 
was  "uncanny  to  see  a  man  up  and  about  who  ought  by 
all  the  laws  of  nature  to  be  dead."     In  this  condition, 

321 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

then,  he  set  out  upon  the  long  journey  from  New  York  to 
Tuskegee.  When  the  party  reached  the  Pennsylvania 
Station  an  invalid's  chair  was  awaiting  him,  but  he  de- 
clined to  use  it,  and  leaning  on  the  arms  of  his  companions 
walked  or  rather  tottered  to  his  seat  in  the  train.  As 
soon  as  the  train  began  to  move  Southward  a  slight  in- 
vigoration  of  triumph  seemed  to  come  over  him  which 
increased  as  the  journey  continued,  until  at  its  close  he 
seemed  stronger  than  when  he  started.  All  along  the  way 
he  would  inquire  at  frequent  intervals  what  point  they 
had  reached.  The  reaching  and  passing  of  each  important 
station  such  as  Greensboro,  Charlotte,  and  Atlanta  he 
would  seem  to  score  up  in  his  mind's  eye  as  a  new  triumph. 
And  when  finally  he  reached  Chehaw,  the  little  station  five 
miles  from  Tuskegee,  he  was  fairly  trembling  with  eager 
expectancy.  As  we  have  said,  he  reached  Tuskegee  ap- 
parently stronger  than  when  he  left  New  York  and  strong 
enough  to  enjoy  the  final  triumph  of  his  indomitable  will 
over  his  overworked  and  weakened  body.  The  next 
morning,  November  14,  191 5,  he  was  dead. 

Of  the  myriads  of  tributes  to  Booker  Washington  by 
white  men  and  black  both  North  and  South,  which  were 
spoken  from  platforms  and  pulpits  and  printed  in  news- 
papers and  periodicals  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
not  only  of  America  but  the  world,  there  are  two  which 
we  feel  irresistibly  compelled  to  use  in  concluding  this 
chapter  and  book.  One  is  the  tribute  of  a  former  student, 
Isaac  Fisher,  president  of  the  Tuskegee  Alumni  Associa- 
tion, speaking  for  the  graduates  at  the  memorial  exercises 
322 


THE  MAN 

held  at  Tuskegee  on  December  12,  191 5;  the  other  is 
the  tribute  of  one  of  his  teachers,  Clement  Richardson, 
head  of  the  division  of  English,  speaking  in  effect  for  the 
Tuskegee  teachers  in  an  article  published  in  the  Survey 
of  December  4,  191 5. 

At  this  memorial  meeting,  after  being  introduced  by 
Seth  Low,  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Tuskegee  Alumni  Association,  Mr.  Fisher 
said: 

"Mr.  Chairman:  The  greatest  citizens  of  this  nation 
have  paused  long  enough  to  pay  tributes  of  honor  to  the 
memory  of  Dr.  Washington;  and  to-night  some  of  the 
world's  most  distinguished  citizens  are  present  to  say  their 
words  of  love  for  the  departed  chieftain  whose  body  lies 
in  a  grave  just  outside  of  those  walls.  In  the  presence  of 
these  great  men  I  do  not  see  why  you  have  asked  me,  one 
of  the  least  of  all,  to  add  my  simple  praise. 

"But  I  can  say  that  no  persons  have  sustained  so  great  a 
loss  as  have  the  members  of  the  Tuskegee  Alumni  Associa- 
tion; and  I  come  to  bear  testimony  to  the  depth  and 
sincerity  of  their  grief. 

"There  is  a  story  which  has  not  yet  been  told,  in  con- 
nection with  the  spread  of  industrial  education  in  the  South 
and  throughout  the  entire  country.  I  must  tell  that  story 
here  before  I  can  make  clear  just  how  great  is  the  Alumni's 
loss. 

"In  telling  of  the  spread  of  industrial  education,  during 
the  past  twenty-five  years,  we  seem  not  to  know  that  the 
work  has  been  difficult  and  prosecuted  at  great  sacrifice  on 

323 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

the  part  of  the  Tuskegee  graduates  who  have  sought  to 
interpret  Dr.  Washington's  theory  that  economic  fitness 
was  the  basis  of  racial  growth  in  many  other  directions. 

"The  people  did  not  take  kindly  to  this  form  of  educa- 
tion, believing  that  it  was  the  same  old  slavery  from  which 
we  have  emerged  under  a  new  name;  and  the  Tuskegee 
graduates  have  prosecuted  their  work  in  the  face  of  the 
misrepresentations,  prejudice,  opposition,  and  ridicule  of 
those  of  their  own  race  who  could  or  would  not  understand 
the  spirit  of  industrial  education — a  spirit  broader  and 
finer  than  the  phrase  suggests.  More  than  this:  in  the 
communities  where  they  have  worked  it  has  been  the 
fashion  to  permit  our  graduates  to  do  the  difficult  tasks 
and  carry  all  the  burdens  of  leadership;  but  if  there  were 
any  honors  to  be  bestowed,  they  were  given  to  the  gradu- 
ates of  other  schools. 

"Being  human  and  denied  those  honors  and  public 
marks  of  esteem  which  always  gladden  the  heart,  these 
Tuskegee  men  and  women  have  often  grown  discouraged 
and  have  been  tempted  to  lay  down  their  work.  But  like 
Daniel,  when  those  gloomy  hours  came,  they  have  turned 
their  faces  toward  Jerusalem,  to  Tuskegee,  over  which  the 
great  spirit  of  Dr.  Washington  brooded  and  lived;  and 
from  this  place  he  has  sent  back  to  them  whenever  they 
have  called,  encouragement,  counsel,  and  help. 

"Sometimes  they  have  been  so  depressed  that  they  have 
come  to  Tuskegee  just  to  see  and  talk  with  their  prophet 
once  more  and  to  be  baptized  again  in  his  sweet  and  noble 
spirit.     Many  times  we  have  seen  them  here  and  wondered 

3H 


THE  MAN 

at  their  presence.  They  were  here  to  receive  comfort,  and 
to  hear  Mr.  Washington  say  in  his  own  convincing  manner: 
'It  has  been  my  experience  that  if  a  man  will  do  the  right 
thing  and  go  ahead,  everything  will  be  all  right  at  last.' 
And  these  men  and  women  who  have  sat  at  his  feet  and 
who  trusted  him  have  gone  back  to  their  work  with  new 
and  increasing  strength. 

"  But  now  Dr.  Washington  is  gone,  and  the  graduates  of 
the  school  will  never  again  receive  his  counsel  and  en- 
couragement, however  gloomy  their  paths  may  be.  That 
is  the  measure  of  our  loss. 

"And  yet  our  Principal  is  not  buried  out  yonder.  It  is 
his  tired  body  which  is  resting  just  beyond  that  wall;  but  he 
is  not  buried  in  that  grave.  The  real  Dr.  Washington  is 
buried  in  the  graduates  who  sat  at  his  feet  and  imbibed  his 
spirit,  and  he  lives  in  them. 

"King  David,  pondering  over  God's  mercies  and  good- 
ness to  him,  thinking  of  how  he  had  been  taken  from  mind- 
ing sheep  and  placed  upon  the  throne  of  Israel;  and  how 
God  had  guided  and  protected  him  and  made  his  name 
great  in  the  earth,  exclaimed  reverently,  one  day,  'What 
shall  I  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  his  benefits  unto  me?' 
and  he  answered  his  question,  in  part,  by  saying:  'I  will 
pay  my  vows  unto  the  Lord  now  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
people.' 

"If  all  our  graduates  could  speak  to-night,  they  would 
have  me  pay  their  vows  of  gratitude  for  the  opportunity  to 
make  blessed  and  beautiful  their  lives,  given  by  our  great 
teacher;  and  they  would  have  me  give  public  assurance  of 

32S 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

their  fealty  to  the  work  for  which  Mr.  Washington  gave 
his  life. 

"And  so,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  the  name  of  the  Alumni 
Association  and  in  the  spirit  of  him  whose  body  lies  buried 
just  beyond  those  walls,  I  pledge  you  and  the  Trustees  the 
loyalty  of  the  Tuskegee  graduates  to  whatever  work  they 
are  called  in  connection  with  the  realization  of  Dr.  Wash- 
ington's great  purpose.  I  pledge  you  their  support  in  the 
work  which  you  have  come  to  Tuskegee  to  perform;  be- 
cause we  are  learning  self-government  and  wish  to  help 
prove  to  the  world  that  we  can  pass  the  succession  to  the 
Principalship  here  without  revolution.  By  this  time  to- 
morrow night  another  prophet  will  have  been  raised  up  to 
serve  in  the  room  of  the  great  founder  of  this  school.  I 
want  you,  Sir,  and  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  know  that 
when  the  proclamation  is  made  that  'The  King  is  Dead!' 
our  Alumni  Association  will  be  ready  to  reply:  'Long  Live 
the  King!'  and  we  will  faithfully,  honestly,  and  loyally  sup- 
port the  person  you  elect  to  succeed  our  great  father,  who- 
ever that  person  may  be. 

"In  the  furtherance  of  Dr.  Washington's  work,  the 
graduates  stand  ready  to  say: 

"'I'll  go  where  you  want  me  to  go,  dear  Lord, 
/  \  O'er  the  mountain,  or  plain,  or  sea; 

\  I'll  say  what  you  want  me  to  say,  dear  Lord; 

I'll  be  what  you  want  me  to  be.' " 

In  the  Survey  article,  after  briefly  describing  the  ups  and 
downs  of  Mr.  Washington's  long  fight  against  a  breaking 
constitution,  Mr.  Richardson  says: 
326 


THE  MAN 

"With  such  perpetual  rallying  power  who  could  cope? 
A  latent  feeling  crept  among  many  that  he  was  immune  to 
pain  as  he  had  been  to  insult  and  abuse.  You  know  he 
could  steer  on  over  an  insult  and  never  see  it.  Some  of  us 
shook  our  heads  and  said,  'Why  he  is  good  for  ten  years 
yet.'  Seeing  that  he  thus  defied  nerves  and  baffled  pain, 
we  hoped.  It  was  in  the  hour  of  hope  that  the  last  stroke 
came,  and  we  felt  that  pulling  at  the  throat  which  we 
should  have  felt  had  he  gone  by  sudden  accident. 

"How  Tuskegee  took  Dr.  Washington's  death  can 
probably  best  be  appreciated  by  an  account  of  what  his 
life  meant  among  his  teachers.  Officially  he  was  a  stern 
and  exacting  task  master.  A  tireless  worker  himself,  he 
imposed  heavy  tasks  upon  others.  In  the  home,  however, 
he  had  a  genius  for  cheering  by  little  kindnesses  and  by  a 
thoughtful  word.  Now  he  would  send  around  a  basket  of 
vegetables  from  his  garden,  now  a  cut  of  one  of  his  pigs 
which  he  had  killed  and  in  which  he  took  great  de- 
light. 

"People  who  sent  books  and  pictures  to  Tuskegee  can 
hardly  realize  what  a  double  pleasure  they  were  shipping: 
the  pleasure  they  gave  him  and  others  through  him.  He 
would  have  the  boxes  opened  and  books  and  pictures 
brought  in  to  his  office.  Then  from  all  his  heaps  of  corre- 
spondence, from  business  engagements,  from  matters  of 
national  importance,  he  would  turn  aside  and  go  through 
these  himself,  culling  them  out.  He  would  sort  a  pile  here 
for  this  family;  one  there  for  another,  according  to  what  he 
considered   would    suit   each.     Many   a   time   one   could 

327 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

scarcely  find  a  place  to  step  in  his  office  for  the  pictures  and 
books.     In  all  things  he  received,  but  to  share. 

"Then  he  had  a  way  of  kicking  organizations  to  pieces  for 
a  few  minutes.  If  some  rural  school  had  a  creditable  exhibit 
he  would  order  that  the  senior  class,  150  strong,  should  be 
taken  there,  whether  it  was  one  mile  or  ten  miles  away.  He 
would  order  the  class  out  to  see  how  some  poor,  illiterate 
farmer  had  raised  a  bumper  crop  of  peas,  corn,  sugar  cane, 
and  peanuts,  how  he  surrounded  himself  with  conven- 
iences, both  inside  and  outside  the  home.  Now  he  would 
declare  a  half  holiday;  now  he  would  allow  the  students  to 
sleep  a  half-hour  later  in  the  morning. 

"In  the  same  way  the  teachers  would  get  an  outing  once 
or  twice  a  year,  sometimes  at  night,  sometimes  in  the  day. 
As  the  teachers  are  on  duty  for  both  day  and  night  school, 
and  as  the  students  usually  rise  at  5:30  and  breakfast  at  6, 
these  little  breaks  were  windfalls.  They  sent  each  one 
back  to  his  labors  with  a  smile.  He  knew  the  value  of 
change  and  the  psychology  of  cheer.  No  wonder  then  that 
when  death  closed  his  eyes  both  teachers  and  students 
went  about  heavy  of  limb  and  with  eyes  that  told  too 
plainly  what  the  heart  felt. 

"Just  as  he  touched  the  students  and  teachers  with  little 
thoughtful  deeds  so  he  touched  the  town  and  State,  both 
white  and  black.  One  feature  of  his  funeral  illustrated 
how  complete  had  been  his  triumph  over  narrow  prej- 
udices. He  was  always  talking  about  the  white  man  up 
the  hollow,  back]  in  the  woods.  How  many  times  have 
I  heard  him  urge  picturesquely  upon  gatherings  of  teachers 
328 


THE  MAN 

to  'win  that  old  fellow  who,  when  you  begin  to  talk  Negro 
education  and  Negro  schoolhouse,  scratches  his  head,  leans 
to  one  side,  and  looks  far  away.  That's  the  man,'  he 
would  say,  'that  you've  got  to  convince  that  Negro 
education  is  not  a  farce.' 

"Well,  that  man  was  at  Booker  T.  Washington's 
funeral.  He  came  there  on  foot,  on  horseback,  in  bug- 
gies, in  wagons.  He  was  there  in  working  clothes,  in 
slouched  hat,  with  no  collar. 

"During  the  service  I  chanced  to  stand  near  the  end  of 
the  platform.  Pretty  soon  I  felt  a  rough  brushing  against 
my  elbow.  As  I  turned  I  saw  a  small  white  child,  poorly 
clad,  being  thrust  upon  the  end  of  the  flower-laden  plat- 
form. Then  followed  an  old  white  man,  collarless,  wearing 
a  dingy  blue  shirt  and  a  coat  somewhat  tattered.  After 
him  came  two  strapping  fellows,  apparently  his  sons.  All 
grouped  themselves  there  and  listened  eagerly,  freely 
spitting  their  tobacco  juice  on  the  platform  steps  and  on 
the  floor. 

"How  thankful  would  Dr.  Washington  have  been  for 
their  presence.  What  a  triumph!  Ten  years  ago  those 
men  would  not  stop  at  the  school.  They  cursed  it,  cursed 
the  whole  system  and  the  man  at  the  head  of  it.  But 
quietly,  persistently,  he  had  gone  on  with  that  everlasting 
doctrine  that  service  can  win  even  the  meanest  heart,  that 
an  institution  had  the  right  to  survive  in  just  so  far  as  it 
dovetailed  its  life  into  the  life  of  all  the  people.  Beautiful 
to  behold,  to  remember  forever;  there  was  no  race  and  no 
class  in  the  Tuskegee  chapel  on  Wednesday  morning, 

329 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 

November  17th;  heart  went  out  to  heart  that  a  common 
friend  had  gone. 

"Broken  as  everybody  is  over  the  loss,  no  one  is  afraid. 
No  panic  as  to  the  future  of  the  school  disturbs  the  breasts 
of  the  190  odd  teachers  here.  In  the  first  place,  poor  as 
most  of  us  are,  we  are  ready  to  suffer  many  a  privation  be- 
fore we  see  the  institution  slip  back  the  slightest  fraction 
of  an  inch.  All  these  years  it  has  been  on  trial,  on  record. 
It  has  been  a  test,  not  of  a  mere  school,  but  of  a  race.  A 
tacit  pledge — not  a  word  has  thus  far  been  spoken — has 
gone  out  among  us  that  it  shall  remain  on  record,  that  it 
shall  stand  here  as  a  breathing  evidence  that  Negroes  can 
bring  things  to  pass. 

"Back  of  this  is  the  unshaken  faith  in  our  Board  of 
Trustees.  I  doubt  if  such  another  board  exists.  It 
is  made  up  of  white  men  and  black  men,  of  men  of  the 
North  and  men  of  the  South.  There  is  not  a  figurehead 
among  them.  Though  intensely  engaged  they  go  into  the 
details  of  the  workings  of  the  school,  getting  close  to  the 
inner  workings  and  to  the  lives  of  the  teachers  and 
students. 

"Finally,  we  are  confident  that  the  public  will  have  a 
good  deal  to  say  before  Tuskegee  is  let  die.  The  beaten 
path  has  been  made  to  her  door.  Her  methods  have  not 
only  been  commended  but  adopted  wholly  or  in  part  both 
in  this  country  and  in  other  lands.  Her  use  is  undisputed. 
She  takes  students  almost  literally  out  of  the  gutter,  puts 
them  on  their  feet,  and  sends  them  out  honest,  peaceful, 
useful  citizens.     This  is  the  ideal  for  which  Dr.  Washing- 

33o 


THE  MAN 
ton  struggled,  and  over  which  his  life-cord  snapped  too 


soon 


For  the  same  ideal  the  people  at  Tuskegee,  though 
broken  in  spirit,  are  willing  to  spend  themselves;  for  they 
are  confident  that  their  cause  is  just  and  that  the  world  is 
with  them." 


THE      END 


331 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,  N.  Y. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N  C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 

II Illlllllllllllll!lll!lll!l!ll!ll  il  11111:1  M" 


I    III     I    III    I 

'00010102051' 


